Cornell Study Clubs 



1 193 



the males dressed in rusty red, as are also those other strange visitors 

 from the North, the crossbills. The latter are always seen in evergreen 



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trees, where their queer 

 bent and crossed beaks 

 prove to be the best 

 tools in the world for 

 the opening of cones and 

 the securing of the seeds 

 they hold. 



Perhaps, when the club 

 is afield sometime, there 

 may be seen at the foot 

 of a hollow tree or stump 

 some curious egg- 

 shaped gray masses, 

 looking like wads of felt. 

 These are owl-casts and 

 are made up largely of 

 the bones and fur of 

 field-mice, whose toll of 

 the farmers' grain is 

 thereby much diminish- 

 ed, for owls have big 

 appetites. There are a 

 number of the family 

 who are regular winter 

 residents and all are 

 worthy of friendly con- 

 sideration, even the hoot 

 Fig. (i\.— Evergreens and crow caws ^^j ^^^ ^-^q gj-gat horned 



owl preferring rabbits to fowls when they are as easily come by. Poultry 

 houses at night should be proof against such visitors. As for the barn 

 owl, the screech owl, and the little saw-whet, or Acadian owl, the farmer 

 who destroys such allies against his enemies makes a grave mistake, 

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