SILENT WING THE GREAT HORNED OWL 153 



of flapping a wing. They are typical owls, having the 

 characteristic short, stout, hooked beak, the large eyes with 

 rosette-like feather discs around them, the short stout tail, 

 and the sharp, powerful talons. Owls are usually easy to 

 identify by these marks, and by the fact that with one or 

 two exceptions our owls hunt by night and sleep by day. 



The great horned owl has a variety of calls. Sometimes 

 he utters a cry closely resembling the rapid, staccato bark- 

 ing of a cur dog. Again he shrieks much like the cry of a 

 panther or the scream of a woman in distress. More often 

 he utters a deep "whoo, hoo, hoo." He moves his beak and 

 even the whole body in the most grotesque way when 

 uttering these sounds, snapping his bill loudly in the 

 intervals. 



Things ran along as they do in the busy life of every 

 country boy until threshing time came. One evening an 

 hour before sundown, the threshing machine unexpectedly 

 pulled into the yard, and his father, realizing that no pro- 

 vision had been made for help, started out on horseback to 

 notify the neighbors with whom he expected to exchange 

 work that the machine had come. 



Stalker's woods, a heavy body of timber of some eighty 

 acres in extent, lay between the boy's home and that of his 

 married sister, and through these woods the boy as mes- 

 senger must pass to reach her home. He was too young 

 to notify the neighbors of the situation, but he could walk 

 across the fields to notify his married sister that her help 

 was needed in the kitchen the next day. Dan Scott had told 

 the boy so many stories of witches, ghosts, hobgoblins, etc., 

 that he was afraid to poke his head out of doors after 

 dark. With fast beating heart he set out on his trip, hoping 

 that he might make the return trip early enough to get 



