248 BARN OWL—KESTREL. [PART II. 
and acted upon with reference to their supposed 
destructiveness to game; and considering that 
every other kind of Hawk (properly so called) 
and Owl, which are at all common here, are un- 
doubtedly very destructive to it, it is not at all 
surprising that these two should have been often 
classed in one common category and indiscrimi- 
nately proscribed as vermin. 
Now as to the Barn Owl, I believe there never 
was a bad name more undeservedly given. It is 
just possible that under the influence of hunger 
he may be driven to pick up a very small leveret 
or young bird (though I have never heard of 
such a case), but his ordinary food undoubtedly 
consists almost exclusively of mice and rats, and 
his presence is therefore a positive benefit to the 
farmer and gardener, and an advantage rather 
than otherwise to the game-preserver, rats being 
decidedly enemies to game. A friend of mine 
tells me that he saw the other day a rat engaged 
in hunting a young rabbit as regularly as a stoat 
might have done it. 
Of the Kestrel I am sorry to be unable to speak 
quite so respectfully. There is no doubt that, as 
Yarrell says, “Mice constitute by far the most 
considerable part of their food,” their diet being 
