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Owls and Killing Rats and Mice
CHAPTER VII.
Short-eared Owl: Habits of-Long-eared Owl- Tame Owl-White Owl-
Utility of Owls-Mice-Rats: Destructiveness of-Water Rats: Food of
-Killing Rats-Ratcatchers.
Amongst the migratory birds that pass the winter in this coun
try is the short-eared owl, Stryx brachyotus: it arrives in
October, sometimes in flights of some number. I have heard
from perfectly good authority of sixteen or seventeen of these
birds having been found in one turnip-field on the east coast,
evidently having just arrived. It is a long winged bird, and
more active in its manner of flight than most of the other owls,
nor is it so completely nocturnal. I saw one of this kind hunt
ing a rushy field and regularly beating it for prey at midday.
The owl was so intent on his pursuit that he flew straight in
my direction and nearly close to me before he observed me.
When he did so, he darted off with great quickness and with a
most hawklike flight, but too late to escape. I killed him
(though it is against my usual rule to shoot at an owl) because
he appeared to me to be of a different species from any with
which I was acquainted. Before I shot him he had put up and
made a dash at a snipe, but did not follow up his pursuit, pro
bably perceiving that it would be useless. I have very frequently
flushed this kind of owl in rushes, furze, and other low cover.
When put up, instead of being distressed and confused by the
light of the sun, he flies boldly and steadily away. Sometimes
I have seen one, when put up, rise high in the air and fly
straight away until I could no longer distinguish him.
The owls that breed here are the long eared owl, the tawney
owl, and the barn-owl: the latter, though so common in Eng
land, is by far the rarest in this country.
The long-eared owl is a fine bold bird, and his bright yellow
eye gives him a peculiarly handsome appearance : altogether he
is of a lighter make and more active than the other owls; they
are very common in the shady fir-woods. I often see this bird
sitting on a branch close to the stem of the tree, and depending
on the exact similitude of his colour to that of the bark, he sits
motionless Avith his bright golden eye watching earnestly every
movement I make. If he fancies himself observed, and likely
to be molested, down he dashes, flies a hundred yards or so, and
then suddenly pitches again. His long ears and bright eyes
give him a most unbirdlike appearance as he sits watching one.
As soon as evening comes on, the owl issues forth in full life and
activity, and in the woods here may be seen and heard in all
directions, sitting on the topmost branch of some leafless tree,
generally a larch or ash (these two being his favourites), where
he hoots incessantly for an hour together, swelling his throat
out, and making the eccentric motions of a pouter pigeon. They
breed in rocks, ivy, or in the deserted nest of a magpie.
I do not know why, but I never could succeed in rearing one
of these birds-they have invariably died, without any apparent
cause, before their first year was over. Not so with the tawny
owl. One of these birds has been in my kitchen-garden for
three years. Though his wing is sometimes cut, he can fly suffi
ciently to get over the wall, but seldom ventures beyond the
adjoining flower-garden or orchard. From habit or tameness
this bird seems to pay little regard to sunshine or shade, sitting
during the daytime as indifferently in the most open and exposed
places as in the more shaded corners : he is quite tame too, and
answers to the call of the children. He hoots as vigorously at
midday as at night, and will take a bird from my hand when
offered to him. Although his flight has been impeded by his
wing being cut, he seems to have entirely cleared the garden of
mice, with which it was much overrun. Though a light bird,
and not apparently very strongly built, his sharp claws and bill
enable him to tear to pieces any crow or sea-gull that is offered
to him. When he has had his meal off some large bird of this
kind, and has satisfied his appetite, he carries away and carefully
hides the remainder, returning to it when again hungry. I do
not know whether the owl, when at liberty in his native woods,
has the same fox-like propensity to hide what he cannot eat. I
have frequently heard this kind of owl hoot and utter another
sharp kind of cry during the daytime in the shady solitudes of
the pine-woods.
The white or barn-owl is rare here, and very seldom seen. I
believe him to have been almost eradicated by traps and keepers.
With regard to the mischief done by owls, all the harm they
do is amply repaid by their utility in destroying a much more
serious nuisance in the shape not only of the different kinds of
mice, but of rats also, these animals being their principal food
and the prey which they are most adapted for catching.
I knew an instance where the owls having been nearly de
stroyed by the numerous pole-traps placed about the fields for
the destruction of them and the hawks, the rats and mice in
creased to such an extent on the disappearance of these their
worst enemies, and committed such havoc among the nursery-
gardens, farm-buildings, &c, that the proprietor was obliged to
have all the pole-traps taken down, and the owls having been
allowed to increase again, the rats and mice as quickly dimi
nished in number. When the long-eared owls have young, they
are not particular as to what they prey upon, and I have found
the remains of many different kinds of game about their nests.
The wings of the owl are peculiarly adapted for seizing their
sharp-eared prey with silence: were it otherwise, from not
having the rapidity of the hawk and other birds of prey, the owl
would have little chance of catching the active little mouse.
As it is, he comes silently and surely near the ground, and
dropping down on the unfortunate mouse, surrounds it with his
wings, and grasping it in his sharp and powerful claws, soon
puts an end to the little animal. The wings are fringed with
a downy texture, which makes his flight quite inaudible on the
calmest night. The numbers of mice destroyed by a breeding
pair of owls must be enormous, and the service they perform by
so doing very great to the farmer, the planter, and the gardener.
Though neither cats nor owls ever eat the little shrew-mouse,
they always strike and kill it when opportunity offers, leaving
the animal on the spot. What there is so obnoxious to all
animals of prey in this little creature it is impossible to say.
Besides the shrew we have the common house-mouse, the short-
eared mouse, and that beautiful bright-eyed kind the long-tailed
field-mouse. The last is very destructive to the garden-seeds,
and without the assistance of the owls would be kept under with
great difficulty. The large-headed, short-eared mouse is not so
pretty an animal, but equally destructive, taking great delight in
sweet peas and other seeds : they also climb the peach-trees and
destroy great quantities of the fruit. A fig-tree this year, when
its winter covering of straw was taken off, was found to be
entirely barked and all the shoots eaten off by these mice. The
shrew-mouse has the same propensity for barking trees. I have
known the former kind, indeed, destroy Scotch fir-trees of the
height of fifteen or sixteen feet by nibbling and peeling the top
most shoot till the tree gradually withered away. The quan
tities of acorns and other seeds that the long-tailed field-mice
hoard up for their winter use show that, were they allowed to
increase, the mischief they would do would be incalculable;
and undoubtedly the best way of getting rid of all mice is to
preserve and encourage owls. The long-tailed field-mouse has
great capabilities as a digger, and in making his hole carries up
an incredible quantity of earth and gravel in a very short time.
When the weather is cold they close up the mouth of their hole
with great care. They seem to produce their young not under
ground, but in a comfortable, well-built nest, formed in the
shape of a ball, with a small entrance on one side. As it is
built of the same material as the surrounding herbage, and the
entrance is closed up, it is not easily seen.
Everybody must be glad to encourage any animal that kills a
rat, and the owls are the most determined enemies to this, the
most disgusting and obnoxious animal which we have in this
country. For what can be so sickening as to know that these
animals come direct from devouring and revelling in the foulest
garbage in the drains of your house, to the larder where your
own provisions are kept; and, fresh from their stinking and filthy
banquet, run over your meat with their clammy paws, and gnaw
at your bread with their foul teeth ? what cleansing and washing
can wipe away their traces? Nothing will keep out these
animals when they have once established themselves in a house.
They gnaw through stone, lead, or almost anything. They may
be extirpated for a time, but you suddenly find yourself invaded
by a fresh army. Some old rats, too, acquire such a carnivorous
appetite, that fowls and ducks, old or young, pigeons, rabbits,-
all fall a prey to them. Adepts in climbing as well as in under
mining, they get at everything, dead or alive. They reach
game, although hung most carefully in a larder, by climbing the
wall, and clinging to beam or rope till they get at it; they then
devour and destroy all that can be reached. I have frequently
known them in this manner destroy a larder fall of game in a
single night. They seem to commence with the hind legs of the
hares, and to eat downwards, hollowing the animal out as it hangs
up, till nothing but the skin is left. In the fields, to which the
rats betake themselves in the summer time, not only corn, but
game, and eggs of all kinds, fall to their share.
Mr. Waterton says that no house in England has more suffered
from the Hanoverian rats than his own ; I don't doubt it-in
every sense. The poor water-rat is a comparatively harmless
animal, feeding principally upon herbage, not refusing, however,
fish, or even toads, when they come in its way. The succulent
grasses that grow by the sides of ditches, seem to form its chief
food during the summer season. Early in the spring, before these
grasses are well grown, the water-rat preys much on toads. I have
found little piles of the feet, and remains of seveial of these animals,
near the edge of water frequented by these rats, which they seem
to have collected together in certain places, and left there. I have
known the water-rat do great damage to artificial dams and the
heads of ponds, by undermining them, and boring holes in every
direction through them, below the watermark, as well as above
it. The water-rat has peculiarly sensitive organs of scent, and
it is therefore almost impossible to trap him, as he is sure to dis
cover the taint of the human hand. Cunning as the house-rat
is, this kind is much more so. Though the former may be in a
measure kept down by constant trapping, it is a troublesome
method, and there are sure to be some cunning old patriarchs
who will not enter any kind of trap. I believe that the best kind
of trap in a house is the common gin, laid open and uncovered
in their runs. They then do not seem to suspect any danger,
but when the trap is covered they are sure to detect its presence,
and, like all wild animals, they are much more cautious in avoid
ing a concealed danger than an open one. Poison is the best
means of getting rid of them, and the manner of applying it is as
follows :-For the space of a fortnight feed the rats with good
wh'olesome meal and water in some quiet room or cellar accessible
to all these troublesome inmates of your house. At first two or
three rats may find it out; these are sure to lead others to the
place, till the whole company of freebooters go for their share.
As soon as you see that they seem to have collected in numbers
in your feeding-room, season your meal with plenty of arsenic,
and you may be pretty sure of its being all devoured. Continue
giving them this till you find no more come, and by that time
probably there are none left alive in the house. The only danger
is, that some of them may die behind the wainscots of your
rooms, in which case you must either open the place and search
till you find the dead animal, or you must vacate that room till
the dreadful stench is over. That rats carry off hens' and even
turkeys' eggs to some considerable distance is a fact; how they
accomplish this feat I should like to know, as they do it without
breaking the shell, or leaving any mark upon it. A crow or
magpie, Columbus like, shortens the difficulty by sticking the
lower mandible of his bill into a hen's e^ when he wants to
carry it off, but this is beyond a rat's capabilities ; nevertheless,
eggs form one of their favourite repasts. The increase of rats,
if left to breed in peace, would exceed that of almost any other
animal, as they produce broods of six or eight young ones in
rapid succession, throughout the greatest part of the year. In
building a nest for her young, the female carries off every soft
substance which she can find ; pieces of lace, cloth, and above
all, paper, seem to be her favourite lining.
The natural destroyers in this country of this obnoxious animal
seem to be, the hen-harrier, the falcon, the long-eared and the
tawny owl, cats, weasels, and stoats ; and, ante omnes, boys of
every age and grade wage war to the knife against rats, where-
ever and whenever they can find them.
As for ratcatchers-find me an honest one, and I will forfeit
my name. I would as soon admit a colony of rats themselves,
as one of these gentry to my house,-not but what I have amused
myself by learning slight tricks of the trade from one of these
representatives of roguery and unblushing effrontery, but. fas est
et ab lioste doceri. Eats swarm about the small towns in this
country where the herrings are cured, living amongst the stones
of the harbours and rocks on the shore, and issuing out in great
numbers towards nightfall, to feed on the stinking remains of
the fish.
They have been seen migrating from these places at the end
of the fishing-season in compact bodies and in immense numbers.
They then spread themselves, an invading host, amongst the
farm-houses and stack-yards in the neighbourhood ;. repairing
again to the coast for the benefit of a fish diet and sea air, when
their wonderful instinct tells them that the fishing-season has
again commenced. But I really must finish the subject, or my
reader will be as tired as I am myself of these accounts of the
unprincipled greediness and voracity of the Hanoverian or Grey
Rat, who has made for itself a home in this country, after nearly
extirpating the original indigenous and much less vile race of
British rats.
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