THEBROWNWOOD-OWL.
Few persons perhaps imagine this to be a pernicious animal, yet in my opinion, it is the very worst winged vermin that exists; they seize their prey with great fierceness, and break it up exactly as the cat does, by beginning at the fore part. It is very happy for the farmer, and others who keep poultry, that the ducks and chickens are gone to roost before the Owl comes to prey in the night, otherwise there would be few, if any of them left; however I now proceed to make good my assertion, and describethe infinite mischief done by this sort of Owls. When the evening approaches, many animals such as leverets, young rabbits, young pheasants, young partridges, who had lain quiet in the day-time, come out to feed in the stillness and silence of the evening, when there is nothing else to disturb them, the Owl then comes, when they are exposed, and takes away what he pleases, and if they happen to have young ones at the same time, it is impossible to conceive what numbers will be taken away in a night’s time to satisfy his voracious appetite; and this I can affirm from my own observation, as I used to make it my frequent practice to go out and hunt the Owls all round the outsides of the warren. The method was this, two of us used to go with a gun, one on one side of the hedge, and the other on the other side; a third person accompanying us with a long pole or stick, who therewith beat the hollow and ivy trees, when the Owls would fly out, and we have shot sometimes a dozen in a morning. Butone morning particularly I found an Owl’s nest, and shot the hen; and, on examining the nest, I found two young ones, with several pieces of young rabbits, leverets, &c. therein, but we could not meet with the old cock; on which I took out one of the young ones, leaving the other in order to entice him home to the nest again; the next morning I repaired to the place, when he flew out, and I shot him dead, and took away the other young one which had been left behind. But, what is remarkable, the old Owl had carried no less than three young rabbits to the single young one remaining, in one night’s time, which is an evident proof what havoc they make among the game. Another particular of these vermin deserves mentioning, which is, that they seldom eat more than the fore-quarters of any animal they kill, as the cat does, and always leaves the hind quarters untouched, which are found in the nest. I have likewise caught them in moon-light evenings in steel traps, baited with a rabbit-skin stuffed,and have often killed many of them with a gun, by keeping close under the hedge, and imitating the squeaking of a mouse, when the Owl has come directly to the place, and I have shot him dead on the spot.