238 Bird-Land Echoes. 



fiendish side of the httle screech-owl, which cannot 

 be concealed in the town owl ; but its respectable 

 cousins in the country are content with mice, and 

 therein lies their safety. The melancholy cry of 

 this bird is so refined that it scarcely rouses a sad 

 thought in us, and I ask no better prelude to retro- 

 spection. 



The iteration of the leaf-cricket on an August 

 evening, the cry of toads at night in early summer, 

 and the gentle, half-complaining ivhoo-oo-o, now so 

 low as to be scarcely audible, and then rising to 

 peevish fretfulness, — these sounds bring up visions of 

 days gone by when the world about me was more 

 of a mystery and therefore to my eyes far more 

 beautiful than now. Not a creature then but was, 

 in my imagination, invested with qualities that I have 

 since found it does not possess. Every little owl 

 then was as an eagle and the easy master of ven- 

 turesome small boys. 



Here in New Jersey the snowy owl is but a rare 

 winter visitor, and were it not for its beautiful plu- 

 mage and great size, would not attract much atten- 

 tion. It has, when here, no marked characteristics 

 that make it essentially different from other owls, 

 except, of course, that it is a " day" bird. 



Under date of December 14, 1895, Mr. Cram 

 writes, " The other day, as I stood in the door, look- 

 ing north, I saw an Arctic owl flying steadily along 

 over the meadows. As seen against the dark pine 

 woods it appeared perfectly white. It alighted for 

 a moment, first in one great elm and then another. 



