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young pheasant who is determined to be out late in spite of the 
warnings of its chucking mother. Possibly the Owl which has 
taken one pheasant may return to the same coop night after night 
or earlier in the evening than the usual time “ when Owls do cry.” 
One Barn Owl certainly acquires a taste for rats, and rats only. 
Another has a taste for mice, and only mice. I once counted as 
many as twenty good sized rats in the nest of a Barn-Owl : the 
weather was very hot at the time, and the rats were all so fresh 
that they must have been killed during the previous night. On 
another occasion I counted about twenty mice in a Barn-Owl’s 
nest, but as part of the nest was inaccessible, there were perhaps 
more mice out of sight in the hollow of the oak tree. Many 
similar instances could be cited. I have probably examined about 
thirty Owl’s nests, but do not remember ever finding the remains of 
game birds in any of them. Rats are dreadful vermin for eggs and 
young birds, and will rob the coops as long as there is a young 
pheasant, chicken, or duckling, to be had. I have known one old 
rat to carry off fourteen young ducks in about three days ; the rat 
was killed, and the little ducks’ legs were found in her possession. 
Now, if a pair of Barn-Owls kill twenty rats in one night, surely 
the Owls do more good than harm to the game preserves ! 
Much the same may be said in favour of the Tawny and the 
Long-eared Owls, although they do more frequently kill game. If 
an Owl for want of its usual food acquires a taste for game, let 
that Owl be killed, and no other; protect the coops by all fair 
means, but do not wage war against all Owls for the offence of one, 
and remember, in nine cases out of ten, the Owls that frequent the 
pheasant coops are there with the intention of catching rats or 
mice, which rats and mice prey on the young birds and their food, 
So much for the Owl’s character. 
There are in this country gentlemen who wish to encourage Owls 
as well as Titmice, and have prepared towers, lockers in barns, and 
tubs in trees for that purpose. But in several instances the game 
keepers persist in slaying the Owls in spite of their employers’ 
wishes ; they may perhaps know how to encourage Wild-fowl, Snipe, 
and Wood-cock as well as game ; but they seize every opportunity 
of destroying almost every wild bird, beast, and reptile that is not 
game. 
Wo were onco beating some plantations with a party of game- 
