750 



Local Investigation- of Foop of Little Owl 



[Nov., 



A LOCAL INVESTIGATION OF THE 

 FOOD OF THE LITTLE OWL. 



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



Keeper oj the Yorkshire Museum, York. 



On the publication of my report on the food and feeding 

 habits of the Little Owl,* I received a letter from Mr. M. 

 Portal inquiring if I would like to have specimens of this bird 

 from a series of localities in Hampshire from the end of May 

 to the middle of July. Mr. Portal was of opinion that the 

 critical months were June and July ' ' when one might have 

 wished for 50 instead of 22 and 14 specimens for investigation.'" 

 Mr. Portal's kind offer was accepted and he thereupon made 

 arrangements with the owners and keepers of several estates. 

 In all 98 birds have been received from different localities. Of 

 these 2 were received in May, 39 in June, and 55 in July. In 

 two cases the stomachs were empty, and are therefore not in- 

 cluded in these figures. Specimens have been received from 27 

 different estates., or an average of 3.63 from each. 



In considering the results obtained it must be borne in mind 

 that this is a purely local investigation, and as Dr. Ritchie has 

 pointed out,t if we limit the area covered by any one study 

 of the food of birds, "the farmer in any particular locality 

 begins to see that the statistics of the laboratory have some 

 close relation to the facts which force themselves upon his 

 notice throughout the year," and he w r ill " begin to put faith 

 in the conclusions drawn from necrological surveys." That the 

 value of such local investigations is considerable probably no 

 one will deny, but the danger is that those who read the results 

 of such will jump to the conclusion that these are typical of the 

 particular species of wild bird throughout the whole country, 

 w r hereas they only indicate the feeding habits of the species 

 in a limited area, and such habits are modified or vary accord- 

 ing to the particular nature of the locality, i.e., whether, 

 agricultural, horticultural, game-breeding, moorland, etc. In 

 Hampshire and the surrounding district there is a large 

 quantity of game-birds bred. 



Food of the Adult.— Of the total bulk of food consumed by 

 these 98 specimens during May, June and July, 91.57 per 



* Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture. Pub., 1922,!). 1022. and March, 

 1922, p. 1133. 



f Scottish Xaturalist. 1918. p. 255. 



