I hear that the little alien owl is still engaged
at his nefarious work of killing young pheasants, not in order to eat them but to use their poor little bodies as a lure for beetles. Further information on this strange habit has been accumulated, On the general subject of their diet some interesting and valuable notes reach me from Lewes. My correspondent, Mr. J. C. Kennard, has seen the bird carrying a young rabbit, killing a thrush, and snatching its prey from a white owl. In his view the thrush is its favourite food. Mr. Kennard asks a question that many of us are asking, though he has more ocular evidence of the bird's ravages than most of us. " What is to be done with the little owl ? Shall it he destroyed ? If we are to protect and increase our useful small birds, I think it must be ; but I shall not like doing my share : one would miss its catlike call and its comic antics as it surveys one from a branch overhead." It is unfortunate that the worst two aliens we have in England, the grey squirrel and the little Spanish owl, have both peculiarly engaging ways. They are like many of our country village cottages, officially condemned, but undestroyed, and likely
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