Mji Llfflc Owls. 
155 
Pavtridgos; for decimating tlic olioiccst singing birds of the 
couuti ysicic; for IxMng. in captivity, fiorco and untamable. 
Against the first of these charges there is, T fear, no 
(hM'ence; tiic cvichMice of guilt is only too well established., 
Ill i-cgaid to tlie second, tiio case is different. The 
Little Owl is said to be more destructive to bird life than any- 
other species, because it luuits so much by day. This is a 
very weak argument, iwke all its congenei's, Athene noctua is 
smart enough in drojiping from a height upon prey almosfl 
directly beneath it, l)ut its r()und(>d wings, and slow slipping 
tlight make it quite unalile to overtake its quarry in fair chase 
like a Sparrow-hawk, nor has it any skill in conducting ,a 
pursuit through tiiick undergrowth. The fact that it is active 
and takes much of its food at a time when other birds have 
also go! their wits about them, does not make it a more deadly 
enem\ than its allies, but rather the reverse. The Brown and 
\Mute Owls, which noi-mally do all their hunting at a time 
when tlieij' feathered victims are asleep or helpless in the dark- 
ness, are, as I know fiom sad experience of the havoc they 
iiave wrought among my foreign birds, infinitely more destruc- 
tive As a mattei' of fact 80 per cent, of the small bird 
" kills " of the Little Owl that I have examined, have con- 
sisted of young Starlings and young Blackbirds, and Thrushes 
(all species whose numbers can well afford some check) which 
have met their fate before they were fully fledged and inde- 
]v(Mi(leni of their pai'ents. Tn reality the Little Owl is fondest 
of insects although it nuist be admitted that it seldom obtains 
eiu)ugh to entirely satisfy its wants. 
That it is not untameal)le 1 know well— almost too well 
perhaps, for although it is now many years since the death of 
my first little Owl " Peeps," and I have had many charming 
and interesting pets .since, I have yet to meet 'his equal for 
intelligence and still mourn a companion who I feel can never 
l)e quite replaced. 
Peeps was brought to us by a keeper one day in June, 
having been discovered lying on the ground, evidently in a bad 
way. .Aftei- an un.succe.ssful attempt had been jnade to feed 
him he had been put into a flannel-lined l>ox where I found 
him or my retui'n— a pathetic little bundle of soft mottled feath- 
ers, to which traces of baby down still clung. His eyes were 
