52 



STORIES OF BIRD LIFE 



many of them never came back, for they went to feed the 

 same hungry mouths which ate the rabbits. Scores of 

 frogs on the creek banks also lost their lives by the same 

 terrible enemy. A favorite article of food with him was the 

 flesh of the meadow mice. These creatures he captured in 

 great numbers about the farm. Grasshopper steak was 

 also a popular diet with him. 



Up in the peach 

 orchard a little 

 screech owl had her 

 ^^J>^ nest in the cavity of 

 .»_-..^ ,...^, „....- -^=.^-^-.- an old fruit tree 



■^^ ' ' each spring for two 



or three years. She and her mate would sometimes go to 

 the barn at night and even perch in the trees about the 

 yard and call to each other in their strange, shivering 

 tones, which caused the young women in the house to wish 

 that all owls were dead. One autumn they were particu- 

 larly noisy, for they had brought their children from the 

 orchard and seemed to be giving them lessons in owl music. 

 Perhaps the big fellow from the bottom land, while roving 

 about the fields, heard them. Be that as it may, one morn- 

 ing the feathers of a little screecher were found scattered 

 about the lawn, and from the bark of a large limb over the 

 limestone walk some of them still fluttered. 



