50 STOKIES OF BIRD LIFE 



poultry yards whenever such an enterprise seemed good 

 to him, and that he alone of all the owls was guilty of such 

 deeds. Whenever the midnight air was rent by the agon- 

 ized cry of a fowl from the direction of the henhouse, the 

 infuriated farmer would spring from his bed and rush out, 

 gun in hand, vowing the most dreadful vengeance on ' ' that 

 old swamp owl." 



There was no chicken, guinea or turkey in the whole 

 region that lost its life by night, or failed to return after a 

 day spent afield, that its disappearance was not regarded 

 as due to this bird's inroads. Consequently he was hated 

 and dreaded by all the chicken raisers of the region, and 

 angry farmers on more than one occasion, at the solicita- 

 tions of their wives, made expeditions into the bottom 

 land woods to hunt out and kill this great source of annoy- 

 ance. Such efforts were always futile, although charges 

 of lead were often shot into the opening of the large cavity 

 in the big hickory where he was supposed to pass the day. 



The view of the matter from the owl 's standpoint was a 

 little different. True, he visited a henroost once in a great 

 while and took a half grown chicKen, as did also his mate. 

 The great horned owl which lived over in the big pine 

 woods and sometimes on rainy days called "who-o, who-o, 

 ivho-o" across the fields to them was likewise not free from 

 guilt. He too would make an occasional night attack on 



