78 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



at the times of such uprisings the birds of prey flock to the in- 

 fested fields in great numbers. More than three centuries ago 

 this fact was noticed, as is shown by the following paragraph 

 from Stow's " Chronicle :" 



"About Hallontide last past (1581), in the marshes of 

 Danesey Hundred, in the county of Essex, there suddenly 

 appeared an infinite number of mice, which overwhelming 

 the whole earth in the said marshes did shear and gnawe the 

 grass by the roots, spoyling and tainting the same with their 

 venomous teeth in such sort that the cattell which grazed 

 thereon were smitten with a murrain ; which vermine by 

 policy of man could not be destroyed, till at last it came to 

 pass that there flocked together such a number of owls as all 

 the shire was able to yield, whereby the marsh holders were 

 shortly delivered from the vexation of said mice. The like 

 of this was also in Kent." 



Another "sore plague of strange mice" occurred in Essex 

 in 1648. In 1754 a correspondent of the Gentleman's Maga- 

 zine wrote from Market Downham, England: " Once in about 

 six or seven years Helgay, about one thousand acres, is in- 

 fested with an incredible number of field-mice, which like 

 locusts devour the corn of every kind. Invariably there 

 follows a prodigious flight of Norway owls, and they tarry 

 until the mice are evidently destroyed by them." 



Similar testimony exists concerning the more recent out- 

 breaks. That of 1875-6 — one of unusual severity, in which 

 one-third of the pastures of the affected district were de- 

 stroyed — was attributed partly to a series of mild winters and 

 partly to the destruction of predacous birds and mammals. 

 A recent English writer, Dr. W. B. Wall, says that "the 

 chief enemies of the voles are the short-eared owl and the 

 kestrel hawk, which will do more to reduce their ranks than 

 all the traps of the agriculturist and the microbes of the 

 scientist combined. The kestrel hawk is known to all, duly 

 appreciated by a few, but still destroyed by too many. The 



