126 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



large ; but so many of these little Owls are brought into 

 this country that, perhaps, all of the reported examples 

 may properly be considered as escapes. In addition to 

 these, there is also a single instance in which the Hawk- 

 Owl, a singular si)ecies from the northern parts of the 

 Avorld, has been detected in the south of the county. 



Observation. — Two other small Owls, viz, Tengmalm's Owl and the 

 Scops Owl, occasional visitors to other parts of England, have not yet been 

 recorded from Devon. The tirst has been killed once in Somerset, and the 

 second has been obtained once on the Scilly Islands, and once on the north 

 coast of Cornwall. 



Family STRIGID^. 

 Barn-Owl. Sfrix fammea, Linn. 



llesidcnt, i;encrally distribnted and still common, though its numbers 

 are constantly being thinned by gamekeepers and others, notwithstanding 

 its great utility in destroying field-mice and other rodents. Breeds. 



Too often senselessly slaughtered, this valuable member of the rural 

 police may be met with far from his native haunts, in the very last places 

 where we are ])leased to see him. In every little bird-stuffer's sho^i the 

 Barn-Owl may be numbered by the half-dozen distorted and caricatured, 

 his face and wings, perhaps, converted into fire-screens ; too often we find 

 him rotting with crows and weasels in a keeper's larder, having been 

 murdered by the cruel pole-trap to which, having caught his mouse, he 

 has unsuspiciously betaken himself to devour it at leisure ; while the 

 guns of those who, if they knew their own interests, "• sua si bona norint," 

 ■would best strive to protect him, are too often pohited at him. Feeding 

 almost exclusively upon field-mice and rats, and destroying great numbers 

 of these mischievous rodents, besides varying his diet occasionally with 

 large beetles and cockchafers, the Barn-Owl renders immense benefit to 

 the agriculturist, and, as is well known, Mr. Darwin has connected his 

 preservation with the interests of the farmer by an ingenious and interest- 

 ing chain. It has been observed that certain clovers cannot seed without 

 the intervention of the humble-bee to introduce the pollen to the stigma*. 

 The field-mouse is the humble-bee's most destructive enemj', devouring it 

 and its comb by wholesale. Consequently, if the owls are all killed the 

 field-mice multiply and, almost exterminating the humble-bees, render 

 the clover crops a failure. This is an instance of that balance which 

 Mature preserves between all her creatures, Avhich man often, through 

 ignorance, upsets to his own damage. 



Mr. Barnes, gardener to Lady Ivolle, at Bicton, some years ago contri- 

 buted several very quaint and clever letters about birds to the ' Exeter 

 and riymouth Gazette.' One appeared in that paper on December 4th, 



* TLe field-bean also requires similar assistance from bees. 



