Perverted instincts in respect of food are not uncommon. We
have examples both in the little owl and the grey squirrel. It has just been discovered that the little owl (which kills young birds in order to use their poor little bodies as a bait for beetles) is a raider of hen-roosts. One was caught, according to a correspondent in the Field, liagrarde delido, its crooked beak yellow with the yolk of an egg. On this subject I may recall an experiment of my early boyhood. We found a barn owl's nest in the horizontal and hollow bough of an old walnut tree and in lieu of robbing the bird deposited a hen's egg. This was hatched in due time and the chick duly recovered from its eyrie before falling or being poisoned by owl food or being eaten on detection. But then the barn owl is the least wicked of all the owls, as even keepers recognize ; it is indeed a public benefactor.
Previous page
