180 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
byegoing. It was a weird and impressive bit of bird life 
one my poor powers of description camiot do justice to. * 
Th7extension in the period of their time of nestmg ^ 
well as the abnormal increase in the number of eggs laid, 
were remarkable facts during the visitation of the Shorty 
eared Owls. Richard Bell --i^s Ending a " "'S 
on her nest of twelve eggs on February 29th 1892. ihe 
snow was lying aU round, so that only her head jas visibk 
STat the sides of the nest lay seventeen dead voles 
^'fdently brought to her by the male bird. He also states 
that in defence of their nests they at times -re very bold 
and on one occasion severely attacked a boy.t ^be Pla^u^ 
reached its highest point in the sumnier <'flJ92, after 
which the voles decreased ; and we read that by November 
1893, all the Short-eared Owls had either left or were 
''Thrcommission, which, under the chairmanship of Sir 
Herbert Maxwell, had sat to investigate the -use of th« 
outbreak found from the evidence brought before them 
rSJ tht plague of voles was attributable to mild winters 
foUowed by a succession of dry springs conducive to 
:rssM breeding; and ^^^^ ^estru^*-" 
abnormal) diminution in the numbers of such useful ^irds 
as Swks Buzzards, and Owls, and also weasels and stoats.§ 
Sr R Service writes : " The great vole plague came to a 
^;ry sudden termination, and the destroymg angels in 
Ihe shape of Short-eared Owls died too m hundreds, being 
Sckfd up everywhere in the last stages "f em— 
'Died of hunger' was the general verdict, but I believe 
twrwas quite wrong. Died of disease incurred through 
la^rthe diseased voles is, I fancy, the trne 'e-on J 
Since this notable immigration of Short-eared Owls there 
. Trans. D. and 6. Nat. Hist. Soc, December 18th, 1903. 
t Op. at., April 17th, 1901. 
X Zoologist, 1894, p. S7. 
8 Mammals of Great Britain, Vol. II., p. 273. 
Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, December 18th, 1903. 
