Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/482

450 birds swallow their prey whole if small enough, or in lumps— fur, bones, feathers, everything together; and that after the flesh and nutritious juices have passed into the system, the indigestible bones, &c., are disgorged in masses usually known as "pellets." In Northamptonshire they are termed "quids," in Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and Cheshire "cuds," in Cambridgeshire "plugs," and in Lancashire and Cheshire they sometimes go by the suggestive name "boggart muck." This curious term doubtless originated from the fact that pellets are sometimes found in church towers and churchyards, and the mysterious hootings and screechings heard at night in these places give colour to 'the notion that "boggarts" (ghosts) are engaged upon their unhallowed feast!

These pellets contain, as stated, the bones of the animals preyed upon, usually in an almost perfect condition, the little skulls being perfectly easy to identify by a competent osteologist. It is still less generally known that many other birds eject similar pellets, e.g. the Swallow tribe, Herons, Gulls (and probably most sea-birds), Flycatchers, and Rooks. Rooks' pellets, by the way, may be found beneath the nests while the young are being fed, and never, I think, at other times, and I fancy they are composed of the indigestible portions of the food which the parent Rooks prepare for their young in a way similar to that peculiar to Pigeons.

I have carefully analysed and kept a record of many hundreds of Owls' pellets from or close to estates where game is reared, and from many parts of England and Ireland, at the time of year when Pheasants and Partridges are young and least able to take care of themselves; and I can positively assert that in no case have I ever found the remains of any game bird, chicken, or duckling. I once mentioned my experience to the late Lord Lilford, and that great authority informed me that his experience entirely tallied with mine.

It is impossible for us with due regard to our space to give the whole of Mr. Adams's statistics; the following are examples:—

If not molested, Owls will take up their abode near a farm and keep the Rats and Mice under much more effectively and cheaply than a professional Rat-catcher. Only last spring, close to a Derbyshire farm, I found within a fortnight fresh pellets containing:—Brown Rats, 82; Long-tailed Field Mice, 38; Common Shrews, 16; Short-tailed Field Mice, 5; Bank Voles, 10; Water Voles, 2; Frogs, 6; Toads, 2; Beetles, several: total, 141. And all this was due to (I think) a single pair of Long-eared Owls.

The first two of the following analyses are from pellets in old deserted Pigeon cotes in farm buildings near Stafford. In both cases the farmers protected and encouraged the birds. The third is from a nest in a hollow oak in Rockingham Park, Northants:—