WILD ANIMALS BENEFICIAL TO MAN 



327 



The Insect- eating Mammals (Insectivora), such as Mole, 

 Hedgehog, and Shrews, destroy enormous numbers of noxious 

 insects and insect-larvs, and are beneficials of the first rank. 

 The mole is also of use in mixing and draining the soil. The 

 vast majority of Bats (Chiroptera) feed on insects, and do much 

 to keep down the numbers of the innumerable species which are 

 injurious to stock and cultivated plants, as well as to forest-trees. 



In the hotter parts of the globe some Mammals do useful 

 work as scavengers, e.g. 

 Hysenas (see vol. ii, p. 14). 

 Rats and the like also act 

 as sanitary agents. 



Beneficial Birds 

 (AvEs). — By destroying 

 field-voles, &c., and small 

 birds of injurious char- 

 acter, many of the smaller 

 birds of prey, such as 

 Kestrels, Buzzards, and 

 Merlins, do much good, 

 though it must be con- 

 fessed that there is an- 

 other side to the matter. 

 Aflalo says of the Kestrel 

 (in Natural History of 

 the British Isles): — "Its 



lOOd consists almost en- Fig. 1233.— Bam Owl (^/^--ryfoOTOTe^) and Nest 



tirely of mice, so that its 



persecution is wanton folly ". Even should it prove requisite to 

 classify any of our native species, unfortunately now existing in 

 greatly diminished numbers, as "vermin", they ought to be de- 

 stroyed in a merciful way. Some of the steel traps used for 

 slaughtering these and other wild animals (such as rabbits) are 

 a disgrace to civilization, and only fit for the days of rack and 

 thumb-screw. 



Owls are more useful, but even more disliked than the diurnal 

 birds of prey, partly as a result of the superstitions associated 

 with them. Aflalo makes the following apposite remarks in this 

 regard about the Barn Owl [Strix Jlammea, fig. 1233). — "Its dis- 

 appearance from neighbourhoods where it once was plentiful is 



