Nature's Militia 333 



Sparrows, multiplied to excess, take to thieving, and 

 commit great depredations in the fields ; and still 

 worse are the plagq.es of mice, which mar the 

 land. 



In Scotland and the north of England there has 

 been a great outcry of late against the swarms of mice 

 and rats which waste the fields and rob the barns, 

 doing far more damage than the sparrows. But why 

 this increase in sparrows and mice ? Because the 

 owls, hawks, stoats and weasels have been killed off. 

 Just that, and nothing else. 



Owls are the very best mousers possible — better than 

 the best cats. One pair of owls have been seen to 

 take as many as eleven mice to their nest in the course 

 of a single evening. Ravens, crows, hawks, magpies 

 and jays all hunt mice, as well as cockchafers and other 

 insects, as already said ; and the young of the brown 

 owl are fed with anything, from snails even to kittens 

 and puppies. But the young of the barn-owl require 

 a steady supply of fresh mice, and she herself makes 

 mice almost her sole diet, so that she benefits not only 

 corn but clover. For if it is true that the crop of 

 clover-seed depends to a great extent upon the number 

 of cats in the neighbourhood, surely the presence or 

 absence of those grand mousers, the owls, must make 

 at least as much difference to it. For mice are very' 

 much addicted to eating humble-bees, as well as corn ; 

 and as the common purple clover is fertilized by 

 humble-bees only, there can be no seed where humble- 

 bees are wanting, which they certainly would be if 

 mice were allowed to multiply unchecked. 



Whether or no people in this land, other than the 

 naturalists, are connecting the grievous plague of 



