Now many of us have wondered and wished to find
out whether this intelligent if brutal conduct on the part of the little owls was a special discovery of some genius in the Sussex tribe, or a general habit, an established instinct. It is now proved on the Sussex estate that the device is annually practised by the one colony of owls. They have learned how to secure a collection of beetles. The bait is deliberately laid. More than this, Sir George Courthope tells me that other observers in other places corroborate the discoveries of himself and his gamekeepers. I do not know that the owls have been seen returning to a poor little body purposely laid in " cold obstruction," but they have been seen to kill young birds and leave them undevoured. They kill for some other purpose than direct feeding.
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