WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



trap, or allow the eggs to be taken, of hawks 

 and owls. Owls, and the kestrel in particular, 

 live almost entirely on mice and yotmg rats, 

 and when we kill a bam owl (the bam owl is 

 the white owl which flies about so silently over 

 the fields) we are allowing hxmdreds of mice to 

 live and thrive and eat our things. 



{Note. — ^The bank voles, Evotomys, are widely 

 distriljuted throughout the northern hemispheres, 

 E. glareolViS being the commonest European repre- 

 sentive of the genus. The British bank voles are as 

 follows : — E. glareolus britcmnicus, differing in several 

 particulars from the Continental tj^e, and which 

 is widely distributed throughout England, Scotland, 

 and Wales, but does not extend to Ireland. An 

 allied but distinct species has been found on Skomer 

 Island, off the coast of Wales, and has been named 

 E. skomer ensis. Then there is E. alstoni, lately dis- 

 covered on the Island of Mull, and E. erica, peculiar 

 to the Island of Raasay.) 



U 



