176 



BIRDS. 



duties better than to allow Tawii}^ Owls to get " educated up to " a 

 fondness for young things, except rats ! 



I am perfectly well aware that certain Tawny Owls may become 

 vermin, if facilities are given to them, and other food be at the time 

 scarce. I know well the habit which at times is engendered of 

 thumping the Pheasant coops and then pouncing upon a young 

 Pheasant which may come out. That Owl should be shot or 

 trapped, but whose fault is it if such a spirit is begotten ? In the 

 same way I have always been under the belief that man-eating 

 tigers, rogue elephants, and other old beasts are poisonous vermin, 

 but that is no reason why all the tribe should be condemned. 

 Similarly, I may instance White- tailed Eagles and " vermin " gener- 

 ally. Are all to suffer because there is "one bad boy in the school"? 

 AYell, this appears to be the only way adopted in a.d. 1904, to 

 enable our vermin-killers to bring it home to the true delinquents. 

 The fiat is "Slay," and perhaps amongst the hecatomb "you may 

 have secured the culprit " ! 



From the above notes, notwithstanding their absence by name 

 from the usual vermin lists. Owls are not immune from persecu- 

 tion in enlightened Perthshire. How is it none are returned 

 in these lists 1 Perhaps — and let us hope so at least — it is not 

 from ignorance on the part of owners of property or slackness 

 of authority by them, but from wilful ignorance and bigoted 

 disobedience. Much as I know and in many ways respect and 

 admire the general qualities of our Scottish gamekeepers as a class, 

 still there is no getting over the fact that in many places they hold 

 to the old, old antagonism, " to all things which live and move and have 

 their being which wear claws!" — even in some places. Nightjars — 

 nasty floppin^ things these be f" 



I grant there is proof that Tawny Owls do take a young hare at 

 times — I have plenty accounts of their doing so, but I uphold that 

 the good they do in keeping down far worse vermin, such as young 

 rats and voles and mice — which, often, keepers consider as beneath their 

 notice or not within their province to hill — far and away makes up for 

 any other delinquencies. But many things may become too numerous , 

 and so also may the best-behaved of our raptorial birds. Con- 

 sequently their natural food may, and does, become scarcer in certain 

 seasons, and then they may — do — occasion some little trouble to the 

 keepers. At other times they are often the keepers' best friends, 

 especially if any keeper thinks it is not his duty to kill rats ! 



