OUR ALLIES 163 



use he spikes on a thorn bush or an orange tree, or 

 makes use of the barbs of your wire fence. In this 

 way I find grasshoppers and grubs and crickets and 

 even whole frogs among his storages grubs as 

 big as your thumb, and I am grateful for his help 

 in my garden. But that he breaks up some birds' 

 nests I cannot deny. 



In the North I feel somewhat the same way about 

 the owl; a screechy affair, associated with all sorts 

 of superstitious notions and not unacquainted with 

 chicken flesh. Yet I believe the owls, as a rule, are 

 fairly classed as helpers, for there is a certain class 

 of marauding vermin at night that only the owl can 

 spy out and destroy. The government bulletins in- 

 sist that some of the hawks should be encouraged, 

 for they surely do catch mice and occasionally may 

 be found in some honest occupation, but I have never 

 met a hawk that at the time was not up to mischief 

 either striking his ugly claws into my chickens, or 

 sailing around the sky in geometric circles just over 

 the chicken yard. 



I like hens; I do not wish to live where I can- 

 not hear roosters crowing at daybreak. In fact, they 

 crow long before that, only most people do not know 

 it. Just as the morning curtain is being drawn slowly 

 up it is fine to hear " Good morning " called out 

 from a whole valley full of farmyards. It is a 

 curious habit that chanticleer has, but it is full of 

 good cheer and associated with pleasant memories 

 for many of us. 



