STORIES OF BIRDS AND BEASTS 



our nests, are accused of eating not only our smaller 

 brethren, but also four-footed animals which are of 

 service to man. I deny that we do this as a tribe, 

 except when we are pressed for food, and Heart of 

 Nature says to us all, ' Take what ye need to eat! ' 



" Now, you are all in honor 

 bound to speak the truth at 

 this hearing, and you shall 

 be heard first, Brothers of the 

 Darkness you, with strange 

 voices and feathered eye-cir- 

 cles you, who have three 

 eyelids and whose eggs are 

 whiter even than moonlight. 



" Brother Screech Owl, 

 whose day is my night, tell 

 us about yourself how 

 and where you live." 



There were two Screech 

 Owls perched side by side on 

 one stump. They were not 

 ten inches long, and had 

 feathery ear - tufts standing 

 up like horns an inch long. 

 One Owl w^as mottled gray 

 and black ; the other was 

 rusty-red; and the toes of both peeped out of holes in 

 their thin stockings. The gray one gave a little quaver- 

 ,ing wail and said: 



" I am everywhere a well-known Owl ; though I say 

 it myself, I am a good, hard-working Citizen, and in 

 this the Wise Men agree. 



SCREECH OWL. 



