216 
THE RAT. 
as they arc most valuable in houses, barns, and granaries. 
As for the larger cats, the best thing you can do, is to get 
rid of them ; for they are too lazy for mousing, and too 
cunning for ratting, and will at any time sooner dine, sup, 
or breakfast off a pigeon, chicken, or duckling, than battle 
for a meal. 
We now come to the farmers' most sincere friend, the 
Barn Owl, which, for beauty and softness of plumage, and 
delicacy of colour, is scarcely to be surpassed by any bird in 
the entire range of ornithology, and which, at the same time, 
has been the most barbarously treated bird in the whole 
creation. Country fellows have taken the poor birds' eggs, 
and thrown them about, seeing how far they could sling 
them before they would break. Then they have taken the 
half-fledged young ones, and after subjecting them to every 
cruelty, by knocking and kicking them about, they have 
twisted their necks, and thrown them into a ditch. Then, 
again, savages, calling themselves men, have taken one of 
the old ones, and having lashed it to a duck's back, sent it 
adrift in the pond, and there let it be till it was drowned 
by the duck's continued divings to get away ; and the 
struggles and the piteous cries of the poor purblind bird for 
life were by these ignorant barbarians considered subjects 
for merriment and laughter ; and lastly, the poor bird's 
companion was spread out against a barn-door, and nailed 
through the head and wings as a warning to others. Thus 
have they disposed of this innocent, and, at the same time, 
most valuable family. 
To justify such barbarities, pray what are the charges 
brought by these rude savages against these unoffending 
birds ? That they suck the pigeons' eggs, and kill the young 
pigeons and chickens ; and that they devour the smaller 
kind of birds, and plunder their nests ; each of which charges 
I believe to be entirely false. In substantiation of this belief 
I will quote the testimony of that most interesting traveller 
and naturalist, Charles Waterton, Esq., whose evidence in 
such matters I hold to be a host in itself, because he is not a 
theoretical, but a sound practical naturalist, who spares neither 
time, trouble, nor expense to arrive at pure natural facts. 
He tells us that when farmers complain that the barn owl 
destroys the pigeons' eggs, they lay the saddle on the wrong 
