LITTLE OWLS.

Evening Star, Issue 13091, 26 October 1908, Page 2

LITTLE OWLS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In your last night’s edition occurs a quotation from tho * Otautan Standard ” from someone who had watched two small horned owls account for twenty-four sparrows in fifteen or twenty minutes—twelve sparrows to each owl in twenty minutes or less. I hae ma doots ! Owls, as is well known, hunt by night; indeed, are helpless in daylight. I myself have seen on more than one occasion an unfortunate owl, when disturbed from his shady retreat, fly about, chased by a flock of small birds shrieking all round him. Though in no way doubting the sincerity of the observer of the slaughter of so many birds in such a short space of time, I doubt the* accuracy of his observing powers at night. Like all birds of prey, owls breed much later than other birds, a , provision of Nature to enable them the more fnlly to provide for their young. Further, unless they have young to provide for they devour their victims at once. There "must have been, then, more than two small owls on the job, not visible in the gloaming, as two birds could not possibly have assimilated _so many birds in the time, as the breeding season has not begun. If I he, mistaken, farewell to all grain and fruit in this country before many years elapse. Hordes of desolating insects of every kind will destroy ali vegetation, as has been experienced in America and France, where stringent laws for the preservation of small birds have ere now had to be enacted.—l am, etc., J. g. M'D. October 24.