THE LATE LORD LILFORD AND THE LITTLE OWL.
[To THE EDITOR 07 THE "SPECTATOR."]
Srs,—I read with lively interest the article on "The Little Owl" in last week's Spectator. With your kind permission I would ask leave to explain one of the motives which induced my brother to introduce the bird into this country. The effect has been disastrous, but the original intention was benevolent. Years ago—in the early 'eighties, I think—my brother told me that he frequently received letters from clergymen and others asking him, as a well-known ornithologist, for advice how to get rid of bats and starlings which had taken up their abode in churches. His reply was, "Introduce the Little owl and it will do the work for you," coupled with an offer (limited, I believe, in the first instance, to churches in his own county of Northamptonshire) to supply any clergy who would apply to him with a pair of these birds to be let loose in the belfry. I understood from my brother that his offer was accepted in several instances. It was not solely as an interesting "experiment in acclimatization" that he in- troduced the bird into England, and though I have no data to enable me to state whether the Little owl served the purpose of ridding any churches of unwelcome visitors, it may at least be pleaded on its behalf that it was credited with the will to do so. But the result of its intro- duction into this country has, as you justly observe, proved disastrous; and the great fear now is that the four species of native owls, in the preservation of which my brother took such keen and active interest, will at the bands of gamekeepers and others suffer cruelly for the crimes perpetrated by Athena noctua. The article in last week's Spectator may do some- thing to avert this misfortune, but I much fear that the Spectator is not studied by the class whom we most wish to influence in this matter. At any rate, as a bird-lover, I beg to thank you most heartily for your article on " The Little
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