66 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS.  [cuap. vin. 
sharp kind of cry during the daytime in the shady solitudes of 
the pine-woods. 
The white or barn-owl is rare here, and very seldom seen. T 
believe him to have been almost eradicated by traps and keepers. 
With regard to the mischief done by owls, all the harm they 
do is amply repaid by their utility in destroying a much more 
serious nuisance in the shape not only of the different kinds of 
mice, but of rats also, these animals being their principal food 
and the prey which they are most adapted for catching. 
I knew an instance where the owls having been nearly de- 
stroyed by the numerous pole-traps placed about the fields for 
the destruction of them and the hawks, the rats and mice in- 
creased to such an extent on the disappearance of these their 
worst enemies, and committed such havoc among the nursery- 
gardens, farm-buildings, &c., that the proprietor was obliged to 
have all the pole-traps taken down, and the owls having been 
allowed to increase again, the rats and mice as quickly dimi- 
nished in number. When the long-eared owls have young, they 
are not particular as to what they prey upon, and I have found 
the remains of many different kinds of game about their nests. 
The wings of the owl are peculiarly adapted for seizing their 
sharp-eared prey with silence: were it otherwise, from not 
having the rapidity of the hawk and other birds of prey, the owl 
would have little chance of catching the active little mouse. 
As it is, he comes silently and surely near the ground, and 
dropping down on the unfortunate mouse, surrounds it with his 
wings, and grasping it in his sharp and powerful claws, soon 
puts an end to the little animal. The wings are fringed with 
a downy texture, which makes his flight quite inaudible on the 
calmest night. The numbers of mice destroyed by a breeding 
pair of owls must be enormous, and the service they perform by 
so doing very great to the farmer, the planter, and the gardener. 
Though neither cats nor owls ever eat the little shrew-mouse, 
tney always strike and kill it when opportunity offers, leaving 
the animal on the spot. What there is so obnoxious to all 
animals of prey in this little creature it is impossible to say. 
Besides the shrew we have the common house-mouse, the short- 
eared mouse, and that beautiful bright-eyed kind the long-tailed 
