. The British bird book . VHE Bam Owl, White Owl, or Screech Owlis undoubtedly a very good friend to thefarmer, and practically neutral as far as the gamekeeperis concerned. For although, on very rare occasions, it maymake free with a young chicken, its food consists almostentirely of mice, voles, shrews, bats, and sparrows. Thismay be proved by an examination of the pellets, con-sisting of the indigestible portions of the food, which are foundin large quantities wherever these birds make their examination of some seven hundred of these, conducted 9. by a most careful observer,resulte
. The British bird book . VHE Bam Owl, White Owl, or Screech Owlis undoubtedly a very good friend to thefarmer, and practically neutral as far as the gamekeeperis concerned. For although, on very rare occasions, it maymake free with a young chicken, its food consists almostentirely of mice, voles, shrews, bats, and sparrows. Thismay be proved by an examination of the pellets, con-sisting of the indigestible portions of the food, which are foundin large quantities wherever these birds make their examination of some seven hundred of these, conducted 9. by a most careful observer,resulted in the discovery of theremains of i6 bats, 3 rats,237 mice, 693 voles, and 1,590shrews, together with the skullsof 22 small birds ; and I havemyself had an opportunity,quite recently, of inspecting alarge quantity of pellets whichconsisted almost entirely of theskulls of sparrows. The late Lord Lilford, whomade some very careful experiments with regard to thefood of owls, tells us that on one occasion a Bam Owlin his own possession swallowed eight mice, one afteranother, and did its best to gulp down a ninth, being onlyprevented from doing so by the limits of its internalcapacity. Yet three hours later it was hungry again, andate four more mice! The young birds,too, are fed entirely upon mice, one ofwhich is brought to them by the parentsat regular intervals of about fifteenminutes throughout the night. One onlyhas to remember the devastation causedby mice, both in the stacks and the openfield, and the extraordinary rapidity with 10
Size: 1289px × 1939px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1921
