CANNIBALS IN COURT 325 



cheerfully, they thought — " you look as unhappy as 

 the party of astronomers who went all the way to 

 Africa to photograph an eclipse of the sun, and when 

 the time came were so excited that they forgot to open 

 the camera, and so took no pictures. Come into the 

 hall and I will tell you about a plan I have. Catching 

 cold isn't a nice game for a birthday party. 



" You expected to hear something about the canni- 

 bal birds to-day, and see the woods where a great 

 many of them live and make their nests, didn't you?" 



" Yes," said Dodo ; " we wanted to know why they 

 are cannibals, and see where the wicked things live 

 that eat little Chickens and song- birds." 



"Very well. Now do you know that though all 

 Hawks and Owls sometimes eat other birds and help 

 themselves to poultry from the barnyards, yet at the 

 same time most of them are the farmer's best friends ? " 



" No," said Rap ; " I thought they were all bad, 

 evil birds, and that the Government often gave money 

 to people for killing them ; besides, I am sure that 

 a Hawk took eleven of our little Chickens this very 

 spring ! " 



" The Wise ]Men have been looking up the records 

 of these cannibals — or Birds of Prey, as they are 

 usually called — and find that very few of them — 

 only two or three kinds, perhaps — should be con- 

 demned to death. The others belong to the secret 

 guild of the Wise Watchers who, sitting silently in 

 the shadows of the woods, or perching in the trees 

 around the edges of fields, Avait for rats, mice, moles, 

 rabbits, gophers, beetles, cutworms, and many other 

 creatures Avhich destroy vegetable life. The Wise 



