BIRD PELLETS—EVIDENCE AS TO FOOD OF BIRDS. 131
On the vexed question of the destruction of young game-
birds by the Little Owl, Dr. Collinge comes to the conclusion
that the percentage of remains of game birds in the pellets or
stomachs is infinitesimal; he is, however, careful to add:
"It is not stated that the Little Owl does not destroy young
game birds, for it does, but it is contended that the actual
percentage is so small that it is, under ordinary circumstances,
negligible." He emphasizes the fact, proved by the evidence,
that the bulk of the Little Owl's food consists of injurious and
neutral insects, voles and mice, and justly contends "A bird that
feeds largely upon wireworms and click beetles by day and voles
and mice by night, is surely worthy of protection."
Still more recent researches of Dr. Collinge49, made on the
stomach contents of 98 Little Owls, which were sent him from
Hampshire (a game-breeding district) during May, June and
July of this year, confirm the foregoing results. Of the total bulk
of food examined, "91.57 per cent. consisted of animal matter,
and 8.43 per cent. of vegetable matter. Of the animal content
57.34 per cent. consisted of insects, 20.28 per cent. of earth-
worms, 7.71 per cent. of voles and mice, 2.94 per cent. of wild
birds (mostly house-sparrows), and 1.78 per cent. of game birds
and poultry. Wireworms and click beetles constituted 10.10
per cent. and cockchafers and their larvae 5.10 per cent. of the
insect content. The neutral insects consisted in the main of
Dung Beetles (Geotrupes) and a few small moths."
It is, therefore, evident from Dr. Collinge's patient investi-
gations that the injury done to game-preserves by the Little
Owl is relatively insignificant; while, on the other hand, the
bird is a highly beneficial agent by devouring agricultural pests,
and, like its congeners, is deserving of protection against ignorant
prejudice.
Other examinations, not so detailed as Dr. Collinge's,
nevertheless tend to confirm the above statements.50
Specimens of Little Owl pellets in the Essex Museum contain
mammalian fur, rami of field-vole, and limbs of a dung-beetle
(Geotrupes).
49 Journal Ministry of Agriculture, Nov. 1922, p. 750.
50 Cf. Zoologist, 1914, p. 113; 1916, p. 208; 1886, p. 473. British Birds, III , p. 338;
vi., pp. 19, 65, 66. Coward's Birds of the Brit. Isles, 1919, p. 304. Coward's: "Note on the Little
"Owl and its Food," Manchester Memoirs, lvi., 1912, No. 8.