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Mention has been made here of familiar birds because they form 
the largest battalions of our allies. The majestic buzzard, the 
soaring kite, the osprey, and the harriers, the booming bittern, the 
avocet, and ruff—all well-nigh extinct in this country—and other 
The owl is as undoubtedly the friend of man as he is the 
enemy of mice and other small vermin. He is the 
farmer’s best friend, and every effort should be made to 
encourage his presence in barn or stackyard. 
and smaller birds which still struggle, more and more faintly, 
against extermination in Britain, are not and never have been 
looked on with enmity by the farmer. They have other and more 
insatiable foes to dread, and their extinction would be not so much 
