THE BIRD'S NEST 31 



miller said the Owl had borrowed an old Crow s nest 

 and fixed it up a little." 



" I should think the eggs would have frozen hard 

 and been spoiled," said Nat. 



" No, the old Owl sat on them ever so tight and 

 would hardly budge to let the miller see them. We 

 didn't stay long, for the Owl was a savage big thing, 

 nearly two feet high, with yellow eyes and long 

 feathers sticking up on its head like horns." 



"A Great Horned Owl," said the Doctor. "I only 

 wonder that it let the miller go near it at all ; they 

 are generally very wild and fierce." 



" This one was sort of friends with the lumbermen," 

 continued Rap, " for they used to hang lumps of raw 

 meat on the bushes for it, and they said it kept the 

 rats and mice away from the camp and was good com- 

 pany for them. It frightened me when I heard it 

 first ; it gave an awful scream, like a hurt person. 

 After a while another one began to bark like a dog 

 with a cold, just like this 4 who-o-o-o hoo hoo 

 hoo.' And, Doctor, one of the lumbermen told me 

 that with Owls and Hawks the female is mostly bigger 

 than the male. Do you think that is so ? Because 

 with singing birds the male is the largest." 



"Among cannibal birds the female is usually the 

 largest," answered the Doctor, who was pleased to see 

 that Rap so often had a " because " for his questions. 

 " These birds do a great deal of fighting, both in catch- 

 ing their living prey and holding their own against ene- 

 mies ; and as the female stays most at home, being the 

 chief protector of the nest, she needs more strength." 



" Some singing birds are real plucky too," said Rap. 



