184 THE SECOND BOOK OF. BIRDS 
This bird, like most others, makes many dif- 
ferent sounds. His song is a soft “coo-00,” 
something like that of a mourning dove. When 
a stranger comes to his home and he 1s there, he 
gives a rattle which sounds like a rattlesnake. 
This scares people, and perhaps animals, away, 
for no one wants to meet a rattlesnake in a dark 
hole. I wonder if the bird learned this trick 
living in the same house with the snake. 
The Department of Agriculture has proved 
owls to be among the most useful of birds. Their 
food is almost entirely of hurtful creatures, and 
they come out at night when other birds are 
asleep and are ready to hunt the pests which do 
the same. 
