42 STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



It is a good thing that his feathers are so thick and close. They are like 

 a suit of armour, and defend him from the bite of the snake. He does not 

 mind what kind of snake it is, or how poisonous. He darts down and attacks 

 it at once. 



His way of attack is by seizing the snake with his claws just on the nape 

 of the neck. The snake is struck down, as it were, and cannot use its fangs- 

 It often twists the rest of its body about, and wraps it quite round its enemy. 

 But it cannot move its head, so there is no harm done ; and the buzzard gives 

 it a great bite, and ends by killing it. He eats the snake bit by bit until none 

 of it is left. 



You must not suppose that he lives entirely on snakes, though he kills as 

 many as he can, and will eat three great ones in the course of a morning. He 

 does not object to rats and mice and other small animals, and he rather likes 

 to fish in shallow pools, and has no objection to a crab, whenever he can find 

 one. He is rather handsome in a suit of brown, his tail tipped with white, 

 and the under part of his body w^hite, with brown spots. He and his partner 

 make a nest of young twigs of the trees, and line it with leaves. It is a 

 little the shape of a saucer. 



THE SNOWY OWL. 



The owl is one of the birds that is very rarely seen. The reason is because 

 of his secluded habits and his dislike to facing the light. It must be some 

 very unusual circumstance that can bring him out in the day-time. 



A gardener was once working in a garden when he heard a very strange 

 noise from the top of a tree. As he was very expert, he climbed up to see 

 where the noise came from, and what it was that made it. When he got half 

 way up the tree, two fierce white creatures dashed out and attacked him with 

 beak and claws, making at the same time a terrible screaming. 



They were, as the intruder soon found to his cost, a pair of owls taking 



