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It is because they kill the tiresome mice that people should not shoot, or trap, or allow the eggs to be taken, of hawks and owls. Owls, and the kestrel in particular, live almost entirely on mice and young rats, and when we kill a barn owl (the barn owl is the white owl which files about so silently over the fields) we are allowing hundreds of mice to live and thrive and eat our things.

— Frances Pitt

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More quotes by Frances Pitt

There are many ferocious predators in the watery world of pond and ditch, such as that carnivorous monster the dragonfly larva and the bloodthirsty great water beetle, Dytiscus marginalia, with its equally predatory grub.

Another small bird that has to find shelter these winter nights is the common wren, or 'Jenny Wren' as we call it in the countryside, and it likes snug quarters, a really good place being often patronised by several birds. A hayrick is a popular dormitory.

Nature Through the Year (1950)

... sentimentality has no place beneath the trees nor where the fresh winds blow. Hunt and be hunted is the rule of wild life.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Frances Pitt (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.