The Screech Owl 307 
hand and better than anything ever found in 
books. Let us study it together. The old orchard is 
before us; many of the trees have long since passed 
their commercial usefulness, but they should be spared, 
for they are now the homes of our animal friends. 
Time and the elements have dealt harshly with them, 
and the boisterous wind has torn many a limb asunder; 
here, for many years, the flickers have drilled their 
homes, and the cavities in the old trees have grown 
larger year by year. ‘Toward one old tree, one-half 
of which is tipped over until it touches the ground, 
many mice tracks converge,—probably the seeds in 
the apples beneath the snow are the attraction, or 
perhaps some other dainty well liked by the mouse. 
We notice that here a well defined track suddenly 
ends, and we wonder where the mouse could have 
gone; but if we look a little closer, we find, at the end 
of the trail on either side, a slight mark in the snow. 
These marks were probably made by the wing-tips 
of some night flying bird, in whose deadly grip the 
little mouse met its end. We now examine some of 
the cavities in the old trees, from one of which we 
draw forth a plump, sleek screech owl. Could he 
but talk, he would without doubt be able to explain 
those marks in the snow, and to tell the reason why 
the mouse would never again scamper about in the 
