23 JUNE 1928, Page 12

A PHEASANT-EATING OWL.

' The other immigrant of evil name is the little Spanish owl. Official inquiry indicated that (like almost every biid that flies) it did rather more good than harm, was fonder of mice and beetles than of young birds. But it grows worse as it multiplies". Literally snores now nest in rabbit burrows and the subterranean habit seems to have destroyed their morals. Not in one parish but many grim evidence—some quoted in detail in the Field—has been accumulated of the piling up of young ground-nesting birds in these underground nests. Pheasants have been the worst sufferers. In some localitieS the little owls are still aceused-but I doubt the evidence' of devouring nightingales.