The Uses of an Owl It is surprising how large
a part of the report of the Norfolk Naturalists' Society is occupied with mammals, though its theme is the bird. The raciest passages, even of Major Anthony Buxton's delightful account of bird-watching on Horsey Broads, concern the short-eared owls which, according to prophecy, were attracted to the Broads in quantity by the plague of short-tailed field mice which they devoured as freely almost as a tit takes green caterpillars. The whole report makes the bird-lover's mouth water. The number of waders, rare and common, Major Buxton saw at a sitting from his tub hide in the marsh is scarcely credible, and Mr. Garnett's diary of the months (doubtless composed from his little dwelling by the coast) is a continuous record of rarities that most of us have never seen. Incidentally Mr. Garnett published some years ago a little handbook of identification that remains the best of its sort. He saw last year bar-tailed godwits, Slavonica grebe, reiffs and reeves, spoonbill fulmars, black redstarts, snow goose, blue throat, grey phalarope and a host besides.
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