306 The Screech Owl 
trees. The greatest damage to trees occurs in that 
part of the owl’s range where the snow is so deep 
that it is impossible for the bird to reach the mice. 
YOUNG SCREECH OWLS. 
To the field student of natural history there are 
no tracks in the snow more common than those of the 
short-tailed field mouse. They are particularly plenti- 
ful about hedgerows, brush heaps, stone piles, hay 
and grain stacks, and farm buildings, while the 
orchard is one complete network of them. Some- 
times in the morning one may read on the soft 
snow a chapter from Nature, written in her own 
