148 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Around the base of the tree lie thousands 

 of pellets of bones and of hair which 

 these birds have ejected from the nest. 

 In these masses are skulls, nearly all 

 entire, of the common meadow mouse 

 that is so injurious to grass roots as well 

 as to the bark of young trees in the 



winter. I searched carefully through the 

 pile of debris but failed to find a single 

 feather or any other part of a bird. 



Proofs like this are convincing and 

 should not fail to secure for the barn owl 

 such protection as it undoubtedly de- 

 serves. 



Noteworthy Trees. 



It is the odd that unfortunately in- 

 terests most people, as the scope of life 

 is not large enough, nor is time long 

 enough to enable us fully to appreciate 

 even some of the wonders of the com- 

 monplace. Our circumscribed envi- 

 ronment, even of those of us who are 

 most enthusiastic for the commonplace, 

 makes necessary a special interest in 

 the unusual and the odd. We all take 



UNITED TREE TRUNKS. 

 Photograph by Mrs. R. C. Fahrion, Stuart, Iowa. 



for granted the ordinary, regular things 

 done by human beings, by other forms 

 of animal life and byplants. The news- 

 papers too chronicle the unusual. 



So it is in nature records. We note 

 mostly the things that are whimsical 

 or bizarre. But to observe, record and 

 love the common things of nature does 

 not mean the recording of the trite. 

 The writer of even the "best selling" 

 novel never begins his book by record- 

 ing the English alphabet. 



Let your camera as well as your 

 notebook mean something that is really 

 worth something. Don't give us the 

 camera alphabet. We know that. Let 

 the thing shown have news in it. To 

 my mind a picture should express 

 something out of the ordinary ; it 

 should have a story to tell. Hundreds 

 of photographs that reach this office 

 are beautiful and well made, but no 

 different in subject from millions 

 equally good that might be taken. 

 There are thousands of abundant 

 things that are not common. We 

 would welcome a photograph of some 

 form of animal or plant life of which 

 there might be myriads in existence 

 yet all practically unknown to our 

 readers. There are hundreds of beau- 

 tiful trees, but the only reason for 

 ever photographing any one of these 

 is its unusual beauty. The strange 

 things that trees do are worthy of re- 

 cord in our magazine on exactly the 

 same principle that unusual events in 

 the lives of human beings are worthy 



