ASNAPPER 



Si 



This anecdote relates to a barn owl, which may 

 well be called the " farmer's friend," for it delights 

 to roost in barns and outbuildings, where it can 

 find plenty of mice, its 

 favourite food, and on 

 that account it should 

 meet with a kind wel- 

 come instead of being 

 trapped and shot and 

 hung up to decorate the 

 end of some out house, 

 where I often .grieve to 

 see it, in company with 

 the equally useful little 

 kestrel and other hawks. 



The brown owl has 

 very different tastes as 

 to its home, preferring 

 a hollow tree in some 

 secluded wood far away 

 from human dwellings, although, from Mr. Water- 

 ton's experience, it will sometimes fly into houses 

 in the dusk of evening. He says : " This pretty 

 aerial wanderer of the night often comes into 



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ASNAPPER. 



