. Our bird allies . ur debt-collectors their five per cent, and the de-mands of the short-eared owl are certainly no moreexorbitant. The Tawny or Brown Owl, author of the celebrated* hoot which is still so commonly accepted as thesure^esage of approaching woe, is an equally ser-viceable being, as may be seen from the followingstatement by Dr. Altam :— Number of pellets examined, 210; remains found:rats, 6 ; mice, 42 ; voles, 296; shrews, $$ ; moles, 48;birds, 18; beetles, 48. Like most of its relatives, however, it is a poacherat times, and that to no little extent, as may begathered from the
. Our bird allies . ur debt-collectors their five per cent, and the de-mands of the short-eared owl are certainly no moreexorbitant. The Tawny or Brown Owl, author of the celebrated* hoot which is still so commonly accepted as thesure^esage of approaching woe, is an equally ser-viceable being, as may be seen from the followingstatement by Dr. Altam :— Number of pellets examined, 210; remains found:rats, 6 ; mice, 42 ; voles, 296; shrews, $$ ; moles, 48;birds, 18; beetles, 48. Like most of its relatives, however, it is a poacherat times, and that to no little extent, as may begathered from the statement, for which the jFie/d isresponsible, that in a single nest were found at onetime no less than five leverets, four young rabbits,three thrushes, and a trout nearly half a pound inweight—part of a days rations for the three hungryyoung. Magpies and young rooks also occasionally HAWKS AND OWLS. 41 fall victims to its talons; but there can be no possibledoubt that, on the whole, its merits far outweigh its. The Tawny Owl. mischievous propensities, and that it ought to beconsidered as a valuable ally of the agriculturist. 42 OUR BIRD ALLIES. CHAPTER HI. THE NIGHTJAR AND THE SWALLOW. The Nightjar—Why persecuted—Great value of the bird—The Nightjar and the Cockchafer—Mischievous powers ofthe latter—The entomologist and the Nightjar—A self-acting trap—Cry of the bird—Its domestic arrangements—Swallows—The common Swallow—Its wonderful powersof flight—Food of the bird—How to distinguish the Swal-low—The Swift—A feathered Mercury—Uses of the tail—Duration of its stay in Great Britain—Supposed powers ofhibernation—The Martin—Its fondness for human com-panionship—How the nest is made—The Sand-martin—Its sagacity—Birds as excavators—Value of the Swallow^iid its kin. Few of our British birds, perhaps, have been ac-credited with such ridiculously impossible proceedingsas the Nightjar, whose alternative title of goat-sucker testifi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1887
