1922.] 



The Barn -Owl. 



925 



Wages 

 Materials 



Special staff and supervision 



£105,639 

 8,772 

 4,004 



Total 



£118,415 



The comparatively few schemes which have actually been 

 put in hand by County Agricultural Committees does not 

 indicate any want of activity on the part of those bodies. On 

 the contrary, in a large number of Counties, meetings of land- 

 owners and occupiers have been held to consider numerous 

 schemes, and agreements to repay to the Ministry the prescribed 

 percentage of the cost of the schemes are being obtained. The 

 difficulties, however, of organising voluntary schemes of this 

 nature are obvious, and it is not to be expected that such 

 schemes will be anything like so numerous or so large as the 

 schemes submitted by Drainage Authorities. 



In conclusion, two interesting points may be mentioned which 

 have been prominent in the reports of the Ministry's Inspectors. 

 The first is that there has been no difficulty in obtaining 

 unemployed men of the class which it is particularly desired to 

 relieve and that all available ex-service men have been employed 

 in every case. The second point is that the men are taking 

 readily to the work and are doing far better than was generally 

 expected, although the work is not only trying but is entirely 

 new to the majority of them. 



****** 



For ages past the commoner species of owls have been regarded 

 by farmers and landowners as most beneficial birds, but during 

 the past few years, when the character of many wdld birds has 

 been called into question, that of the Barn-Owl {Strix flammea, 

 Linn.) has been greatly maligned. Stories which have been 

 told of its depredations on young game birds and rabbits, even 

 in broad daylight, have been too quickly believed and passed on. 



In 1919 the writer prepared a note* giving a volumetric ana- 

 lysis obtained from an examination of twelve stomachs secured 

 between March and October. Since that date he has had the 

 opportunity of examining further specimens, and the figures 



*Journ. W.B.I. Soc , 1921, Vol. i, p. 9. 



THE BARN-OWL. 



Walter E. Collinge, D.Sc, F.L.S. 



Keener of the Yorkshire Museum, York. 



