Wild Birds Useful and. Injurious. 
667 
Unfortunately, even when the owners of moors, on which 
these small falcons breed, allow them to rear their young in 
safety, they cannot complete the good work of protection ; for 
merlins leave their breeding-grounds in the autumn, and I know 
of some tall poplars close to a salt-marsh where two or three 
wandering birds are killed nearly every year, their poor little 
bodies being strung up on barbed wire fencing as though they 
were dangerous marauders. 
The chapter on “ Vermin ” in the excellent volumes on 
Shooting, forming part of the “ Badminton Library,” should be 
studied by every game-preserver. This work is written for 
sportsmen by sportsmen, and is free from any suspicion of undue 
bias in favour of the birds. 
Owls. 
When the red-backed kestrel retires to roost, the good work 
of destroying mice is carried on by the owls, which come forth 
at dusk from barn and ivied tree to prey upon those tiny but 
most destructive marauders. Our ancestors were wise enough 
to leave entrances to their barns for the owls’ especial conve- 
nience ; because they recognised the benefits accruing from the 
presence of birds which manifest such deep interest in the home 
life of rats and mice, and whose beautifully adapted eyes and 
noiseless wings enable them so efficiently to follow up their 
particular hobby. 
Owls, like hawks, return the indigestible portion of their 
food through the mouth, and quantities of them castings may be 
found in places which they frequent. An examination of these 
pellets should be quite sufficient to convince any reasonable 
being not only of the harmlessness of owls, but also of the 
incalculable service which they render to agriculture and, in a 
less degree, to the preservation of game. Yet in many localities 
these poor birds are relentlessly persecuted by game-keepers 
a'nd loafers, and even by the farmers themselves, who, above 
all others, ought to do their utmost to protect their feathered 
benefactors. Few sights fill the lover of nature with a greater 
feeling of pity, mingled with disgust, than the skin of an un- 
fortunate owl, stuffed and distorted into the shape of a hand- 
screen, and adorned perhaps with eyes of a colour the appro- 
priateness of which is apparent only to the lively fancy of the 
taxidermist. 
Amongst the instruments of destruction used by keepers, 
probably the most objectionable is the pole-trap. This consists 
of a small circular steel-trap fastened, unbaited, on the top of a 
