OWLS AND SMALL BIRDS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 521, 31 May 1909, Page 8

OWLS AND SMALL BIRDS.

• The other day a settler at Croon Island missed the small birds that for years past had infested his property (says the Dunedin "Star"). The loss of , their twittering* was as the stopping of ; the clock. . He; could not understand the migration' until one;• of the hands saw .a--wee' grey owl'.roosting in '& tree; Then he knew that he was experiencing a deliverance like unto that which is reported from'Aloxandra and other places.' So far. at any. rate, the Otago Acclimatisation Society have ©very, reason to bo -satisfied with-their importation of the little owl. It is really a midget amongst : owls, being no mora than eight 'or nine inches long, but it strikes terror into the linnets and sparrows by its nocturnal attacks upon ; their young, and the clattering crew: promptly clear out when the owl arrives. At least half a dozen of these little owls have, been seen ( in the districts near" to Dunedin. They seem to follow up the nesting places, and when'one is worked out .go on to another. Evidence has been found that the little owl is breeding in Otago, four or five nests having been seen. One place that they took to as a breeding home was in the> rooks of the Molyneux, near to Alexandra. ■ ,