ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 159 



the death of a woman. The bat stands in the same relation to 

 man. 



When owls came to be better known they gained in character, 

 and from their solemn demeanor and judicial frowning mien were 

 deemed of great wisdom. Thus, among the Greeks, we find the 

 owl sacred to Minerva, the Goddess of wisdom and the liberal 

 arts. 



To-day in Rome and Athens we often meet vendors of tiny 

 owls, each fastened by one leg to a perch. The modern mind, 

 filled only with hard, practical ideas, has no desire for these owls 

 as poetic emblems of a past deity, and wastes not a moment's 

 thought on the cruelty of it all. The little feathered beings are 

 sold to be used as lures for still smaller birds. The owl is taken 

 to the woods, fastened to a stake and lime sticks are then set 

 about it, to entangle all the birds, from the size of a wren to a 

 sparrow, which soon gather about their little enemy. Myriads of 

 these song birds are devoured by the Latin peoples, who seem 

 to prefer the half-mouthful of a song bird's breast, to the trouble 

 of hatching and rearing poultry. 



Only in the last few years when our grain crops reach from 

 ocean to ocean, and the devastations of hordes of mice have 

 touched one of the deepest chords of man's nature — his purse — 

 is the owl getting due credit for his value and economic impor- 

 tance. If every owl on our continent was suddenly swept out of 

 existence, it is doubtful if, after a few years, a single crop of 

 grain could be raised successfully. It would take the mice and 

 other rodents and many injurious insects but little time to confine 

 all their ravages to the hours of darkness. Hawks would in such 

 an event, become almost useless to man, and though weasels 

 and minks might increase prodigiously, yet without the deadly 

 swoop of the owl, the mice would soon overrun the land. Thus 

 the relation of owls to mankind may be resolved into four dififer- 

 ent phases, and man's estimate of the bird has varied from fear 

 to admiration ; from disregard to appreciation. 



Certain owls possess an attribute which will stand out in increas- 

 ing importance, especially during the coming years, when their 

 wild haunts will be curtailed more and more by the inroads of 

 man's unnatural environment : the ability readily to adapt them- 

 selves to life in his very orchards and streets, as shown by the 

 screech owl. 



As a whole, owls do well in captivity, only a few species being 

 intractable. Although they never really lose their innate wildness, 

 yet by rearing a nestling by hand, it can be so far tamed that it 



