148 Our Bird Friexds. 



wing. The short, concave feather of the former, 

 and the long, narrow, sword-like one of the other 

 (see page 147), afford a most striking lesson of how 

 Natnre fits ont her children for the kind of hfe 

 they have to lead. 



Owls generally feed by night, and it is necessar}^ 

 for them to steal noiselessly upon their prey. Hoav 

 well they are able to accomplish this, 1 once had a 

 good opportunity of proving. I was standing in 

 an old cart-shed one moonlit winter's night, when 

 I saw a Screech Owl sail round a corn-stack and 

 fly straight towards mo. I stood perfectly still, 

 and being in deep shadow the bird could not see 

 me, and passing close over my head alighted on 

 a V)eam behind me withoiii making the slightest 

 sound until its claws tapped upon the hard oak 

 beam on which it alighted. Its feathers are very 

 broad, peculiarly soft, and clothed with very fine, 

 downv hair, which renders their fiight inaudible. 

 On the other hand, the flight feathers of the AVood 

 Piofcon are somewhat narrow, and so verv hard that 

 every stroke of the bird's wings can be heard cutting 

 the air at a considerable distance on a calm day : and 

 when their owner chooses to make them meet over 

 its back, they can be heard smaek-smack-smacking 

 like a pair of hard bits of board being brought 

 smartly together. 



Feathers do not grow in an irregular, haphazard 

 way on the body of a bird, but are set along definite 

 tracts, the arrangement of which varies in diflerent 



