136 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



drinking ; another was seen by Mr. K. Gurney to quit a tree, 

 and, after circling round once or twice, to fall dead in its flight ; 

 others were caught by the hand. No Stock-Doves are reported 

 as being affected, which perhaps favours the theory of the disease 

 having been brought here by migratory Pigeons. 



Food of the Barn-Owl. 

 Sept. 10th. — On climbing up to a Barn-Owl's roost, where 

 they have bred in a barn of mine for several years, we found 

 a Mole among the customary pellets of mice-fur and bones. It 

 is seldom that Owls eat Moles, and this one had been ejected 

 whole, and only half-digested, as if the Owl had not liked it 

 overmuch. I have never kept any birds of prey, nocturnal or 

 diurnal, which would eat Moles if they could get anything better. 

 Needless to say there was no remains of game. A Norwich 

 gardener, in an essay written a few years ago, says : — " The 

 number of mice a pair of these Owls will destroy is almost in- 

 credible. . . . When the birds have young, their visits to their 

 nests are frequent. I have timed them on many occasions, and 

 found their visits averaged eight times per hour. . . ." Yet 

 some of our wooden-headed gamekeepers in Norfolk continue to 

 destroy this useful ally; but farmers know better than to kill 

 them, and no wonder when they get a hundred rats out of a 

 fifty-quarter wheat-stack, and field-mice which do more harm to 

 stacks than rats ! 



Bed Grouse. 



An unsuccessful attempt to rear Grouse was made this sum- 

 mer by a gentleman at Lingwood ; of eight young birds five 

 nearly reached adolescence, but just when they had begun to use 

 their wings they dropped off from some cause. A good avi- 

 culturist who has reared them says that if they are once allowed 

 access to heather they will neglect all other food for it. 



