1 86 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



" Early in May two small eggs were laid, a large knot-hole in the 

 branch of the oak being selected as the nesting-place. . . . 



" The Indians, without exception, hold this little owl in terrible 

 dread. To see one in the day or to hear its feeble cry, not unlike a 

 stifled scream, is a fatal omen to brave or squaw; the hearer or near 

 relative is sure to die ere the end of the moon. To kill one is an 

 unpardonable heresy." 



