ENEMY OF SMALL BIRDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18387, 1 May 1923, Page 12

ENEMY OF SMALL BIRDS.

WORK OF THE LITTLE OWL.

FRUITGROWERS PLEASED.

"The fear has been expressed that the little owl will exterminate our few remaining native birds," writes Mr. A. Bathgate, in a letter to a Dunedin newspaper. That some of them will fall victims to its rapacity Is highly probable, but their numbers had begun to dwindle long before the owls wero introduced, and I am inclined to think that fewer of our native birds will be destroyed than will be the case with sparrows and other introduced pests. " My abject in writing is to endeavour to ascertain if the owls have in any marked degree fulfilled the object for which they were, I believe, introduced, that is, to keep in check the numbers of sparrows, greenfinches, and the like, which should never have been liberated. For the last year or two it has seemed to me that sparrows, though still fairly abundant, are not now nearly so numerous as they were in and about Dunedin, and I should be glad to know if anyone could confirm the view. Do the farmers, I wonder, observe any lessening of the flocks of sparrows that used to attack their ripening grain ? I believe that in Central Otago, where the owls wero liberated, the fruitgrowers have not now to complain of the great destruction of the fruit buds which formerly occurred. " I do not say that it was a wise step to introduce the owls, for I believe that some other bird, such as the European magpie, would have proved an effective check to the numbers of _ the sparrows and would have been less likely to prove detrimental in other ways, but if the owls have proved to be of any benefit surely they are entitled to credit for it. Some one told me that these owls had been seen hawking the brown beetles,, the parents of the destructive grass grub, in the dusk. If this assertion were verified it would show that small birds ■were not the only food of the owls, and would also bo something in their favour. I may add that fantails are now visiting my garden as numerously as they have done in the past at this season of the year." .■ _• ■