SOME SUSPICIOUS CHARACTERS 157 
matter of course, and he was one who never killed a song- 
bird and who greatly preferred to hear the Grouse drum- 
ming in the forest, the Woodcock singing and dancing in 
the spring woods (yes, they both dance and sing and I will 
tell you of them some day), and Bob-white telling his name 
from the fence-rail, than to have them come on the table 
ever so deliciously cooked. 
“But within the last ten or fifteen years the Wise Men 
have found out a great deal more about these Owls and 
Hawks — or Birds of Prey, as they are called, and they 
know exactly what the work of these birds is in the great 
plan of nature. Many of the facts they tell us of we can 
see for ourselves if we have the patience to watch. Before 
the country was settled by white men, and became what 
we call ‘ civilized,’ all of these birds of prey had their place, 
but even now many of them are not only not hurtful to us, 
but of distinct benefit. The difficulty is that we do not 
stop to sift the facts and separate the good from the bad. 
To the farmer, and particularly the poultry-raiser, the cry of 
Hawk brings him out, quick as a flash, shot-gun in hand. 
“But if he will only realize that for every chicken or 
pigeon one of these Hawks destroys, it in all probability 
takes fifty rats, field-mice, short-tailed meadow-mice, 
weasels, and red squirrels, he will see that he owes the 
Hawk a debt of gratitude; for it is easier by far to protect a 
poultry-yard from conspicuous things that fly above — 
like Hawks and Owls — than to keep out the things that 
crawl and creep. 
“Now, before we go down to the orchard to see Goldi- 
locks’ little Screech Owls, let us see what Tommy Todd 
has in this box.” 
