Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-09
OWLS ON THE PERCH.
They Sit With the Middle Toes in
Front and the Others Back.
THEIR THUMBS WORK BOTH WAYS.
A Young Bird That Swallowed So Many
Mice the Tails Stuck Out.
WHY THEY SHOULD BE PROTECTED

WHY THEY SHOULD BE PR0TECTED
Much may be learned, says the London
Saturday Reuieu, from a visit to the ''owls
cages" at the Zoo. For example, it is
hardly a matter of common knowledge that
the barn owl, the commonest and best
known of our British species, has practi-
cally worldwide range, the countries in
which it is not found being very few. Yet
that it is widely distributed will be palpa-
BILE to any one who notices that two birds of
this species, the one from the "British
Islands," the other from Chill, are confined
in the same cage.
Again, how many people are aware that
owls, when perched, sit with two toes In
front of their perch and two behind? This
piece of knowledge has most certainly been
acquired by very few bird-stuffers, and ap-
parently is not possessed by many writers
on birds, or the artists who illustrate their
books (curiously enough, neither Yarrell
nor his artist appear to have been acquainted
with the fact), yet visit to the Zoo will
convince the most skeptical that this habit
is possessed by the whole family.
CONSTRUCT ION CT THE FOOT.
The construction of the OWLS foot is pc
euliar; unlike the well-known foot of the
parrot, which has two toes In front and two
behind it, like that of the eagle, ora more
familiar example-the common sparrow, has
one toe behind and three in front, but the
first of these is capable OF much lateral mo-
ton, while the fourth, or outer toe, is re-
versible and when the bird perehes is turned
backward, so that the bird sits on its perch
with the two middle toes in front and the
two outer toes behind.
Owls are the farmers friends, and are
practically harmless to the game preserver.
The food of the owl can be determined
with absolute certainty, as the bird swallows
its prey, bones, fur, feathers and all, and
afterward disgorges the indigestible parts in
the shape Of pellets, numbers of which can
always be found near his haunts-a we'll
known fact, yet one of which neither the
farmer nor the gamekeeper takes the
slightest notice.
WHAT THE FACTS ARE.
DIR. Altum, a German naturalist, e1-
amined hundreds of pellets of the barn owl
and the tawny owl, among other species,
with the following remarkable results: 706
pellets of the barn owl yielded the remains Of
16 bats, g rats, $40 mice of all sorts including
voles and shrews, 1 mole and % small birds;
while 210 pellets OF the tawny owl-a bird
which, according to most gamekeepers, and
even to many writer's on game-preserving
who should know better, is a most inVeterate
poacher-yielded 1 stoat, rats, 81 mice,
voles and shrews, 48 moles and 18 small
birds, to say nothing OF beetles and cock
chafers; and we are quite sure that anyone
trying the same experiment as DIR. Altum
will arrive at the same results. Naturalists
have from time immemorial done their best
for the owl by describing it in its true char
acter as mouser and friend to the farmer
and it is therefore extraordinary that in
these days of universal education the usefnl
ness of the owl should still remain as lesron
to be learnt by those to whom it spends its
existence in doing good. Yet so it is, and
the unfortunate birds are still persistentlY
destroyed.
GAMEKEEPERS POOR AUTHORITY.
That the gamekeeper should be an owl
slayer need, however. cause little wonder 10
those who are acquainted with him and his
ways; for we venture to say that there are
few people, with his opportunities, at all
events, who are so singularly ignorant of
natural history as the average gamekeeper
He lives on tradition and is hard to teach;
owls were vermin to his forefathers, and this
is sufficient tor him, he would rather not
argue the matter, vermin they are, and must,
therefore, be destroyed. Unfortunately he
is often encouraged in his senseless
slaughter of these beautiful and harmless
birds by his employer, who in many cases
is more ignorant of everything connected
with natural history than himself, and is
willing to pay so much head for all the
'yermin" his keeper can procure.
But that farmers should join in the
slaughter is curious and shows most
1n nRohI 10 .
will remorsely shoot an owl whenever they
have an opportunity, under the mistaken
idea that it will destroy their pigeons, and
utterly regardless of the fact that it is doing
its best to free their land of rats and mice.
AUTHORITY OF A LORD.
Under these circumstances we are pleased
to find that so high an authority as Lord
Lilford, the President of the British Orni-
biologists Union, has taken up the cudgels
in defence of the owl, and his remarks,
which are to be found in a recent number of
his Colored Figures of the Birds of the
British Islands, are so trenchant and to the
point that they should have the widest pos
sible circulation, and, therefore, we make
no apology for quoting them very fully; he
says:
1.-THE stoIid and unenlightened game
keeper may plead that owls do eat birds, and,
j
allows his young hand-reared game birds to
be out of their coops at the time that owls
are abroad in search of food, surely the
blame for losing them attaches Justly to
him and not to the tempted owl. l need
hardly say that wild-bred game birds, while
small enough to be attacked by the barn owl,
are carefully slowed away under their
mothers wings at the time when the bird
of night Is on the quest of prey. 1 have ex-
amined hundreds of the pellets cast up by |
this species, in and under their nesting |
places, and never discovered either bones or |
feathers of any game bird, the castings con- |
sisting mainly of the fur and bones of small |
mammalia, with feathers and skulls of seed |
eating birds, and occasionally few bones |
and scales of small fishes"
SWALLOWED NINE MICE.
As showing the infinite amount of good |
done by the barn owl, be adds: ga young |
owl of this species, which kept as pet in |
my school days, on one occasion, when about |
half-grown, swallowed nine full-grown house |
mice in rapid succession till the tail of the /
ninth stuck out OF his mouth, and he could |
do no more, but within three hours he was
hungry again and was barely satisfied with
four more of the little quadrupeds. With |
this appetite and capacity for stowage the |
number Of four-footed vermin supplied by /
a pair of barn owls to a brood of SIX or seven
rayening youngsters may well be imagined;
have seen an old pair bring food to their
brood II times in halt an hour from a rick |
yard near their nest"
Every right-minded man will sympathize
with the writer in his concluding sentences.
at.a fnllOUds H.