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of squirrels, rats, mice, &c., is checked. Nature is nicely balanced in all 
her relations, and man’s interference often does more harm than good. It 
becomes necessary to weigh judiciously the ultimate consequences of our 
actions, or we may find evil effects when good only were expected. 
III. Famity OWLS. 
There is no better defined family among birds, than the one containing 
the various species of owls. The peculiarity of appearance, structure and 
habits, separate them distinctly from all other birds, and no one will, under 
any circumstances, mistake a specimen of any given species for anything 
else than an owl. The great majority of the species are night-fliers; some 
prefer the twilight, and a few pursue their prey during the day, but even 
the latter prefer cloudy weather and the deep wood, to the full blaze of 
sunshine and the open field. 
In early times the owl was considered by the ignorant, and even by 
some pretenders to learning, as a bird of ill omen. Its associates were 
thought to be ghosts and goblins. It held nightly converse with unholy 
things, and its cry was the herald note of misery and death to the hearers 
or their friends. Whenit flapped its wings at the window of a sick person, 
his time had come, and his friends already wailed him as among the dead. 
These charges against the poor owl were about as well founded as the 
claim of wisdom set up for it by the Greeks, who made it sacred to Mi- 
nerva. All such notions were founded on appearances only. It frequented 
churchyards, because the buildings attached to them abounded with secure 
places in which to build its nest, and their nooks afforded protection from 
the light of day, its eyes being unfitted to receive the full rays of sunlight, 
that, instead of shedding light upon surrounding things, dazzled and 
blinded the poor owl. The most surprising thing is, that owls should still 
have retained a foothold in the midst of such hosts of human enemies, all 
thirsty for their blood, and killing them without mercy whenever an oppor- 
tunity offered. 
If farmers knew their own interests, they would encourage the visits of 
these birds, with few exceptions, as their food consists of a class of vermin 
extremely injurious to the farmer. Kats, mice, field-mice, and all the small 
nocturnal quadrupeds, are the chief reliance of his owlship, and the num- 
ber of those killed by a pair of these birds during the breeding season is 
very great. The poultry yard never suffers, unless from some of the 
largest species, that are partly day-fliers. And it would be well if owls 
