8 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



Dr. Hornaday's Opinion 



Conservative sportsmen and farmers will be interested in Dr. W. T. 

 Hornaday's summing up of the splendid services of bob-white. 



"It is fairly beyond question that of all birds that influence the for- 

 tunes of the farmers and fruit growers of North America, the common 

 quail, or bob-white, is one of the most valuable. It stays on the farm all 

 the year round. When insects are most numerous and busy, bob-white 

 devotes to them his entire time. He cheerfully fights them from sixteen to 

 eighteen hours a day. When the insects are gone he turns his attention to 

 the weeds that are striving to seed down the fields for another year. 



"And now a few words to my friend, the epicure: The next time you 

 regale a good appetite with blue points, terrapin stew, filet of sole and 

 saddle of mutton, touched up here and there with some private stock from 

 your cellar, pause as the dead quail is laid before you, on a funeral pyre of 

 toast, and consider this: 'Here lies the charred remains of the Farmer's 

 Ally and Friend, poor Bob-White. In life he devoured 145 different kinds 

 of bad insects and the seeds of 129 anathema weeds. For the smaller pests 

 of the farm he was the most marvelous engine of destruction that God 

 ever put together of flesh and blood. He was good, beautiful and true; 

 and his small life was blameless. And here he lies dead, snatched away 

 from his field of labor and destroyed in order that I may be tempted to 

 dine three minutes longer after I have already eaten to satiety.' 



"Then go on and finish Bob-White." 



THE OWL AND THE PUSSY CAT 



Dear Sir: Lincoln, Mass. 



Very likely you may be amused as we were to see how dumb animals 

 unwittingly sometimes play jokes on bird lovers. In the box in the picture 

 which I am enclosing is a little rufous screech owl. I am sorry you cannot 

 see him, but the box is about twenty feet from the ground in the top of 

 an apple tree and I could not get nearer to take his picture. For the 

 last three or four years Mr. Owl has occupied this house, coming usually 

 in February. Last year we had a good many visitors to see him. He 

 fills the opening in the box and stays there all day until dusk, then gets 

 out on a limb, preens his feathers and flies away, returning again next 

 day. He stays several weeks. About two weeks ago we were surprised to 

 see several people collected on our lawn looking at the box with a great 

 deal of interest. It seems the man on the place was picking a few choice 

 apples with an apple-picker when something fell "thump" at his feet, 

 and, looking around, he saw a small kitten. Thinking that rather strange, 

 he thought he would investigate, and, looking up in the tree, he was sur- 

 prised to see a black and white cat looking out of the box. Climbing up 

 nearer, he found two more kittens. It seems the mother cat had "taken 

 up a claim" on our owl's house for herself and family of three. That 

 night after being discovered and as the kittens had just got their eyes 

 open, she moved them all home to a neighbor's where she belonged. We 

 considered this quite a piece of impudence as we do not keep cats or want 

 any, but are very fond of the birds and trying all ways to attract and study 

 about them. 



Mabel L. Washburn. 



