A FEW FEATHERED FIENDS. 237 



dash into a flock of redpolls with as much vigor and 

 success as a sparrow-hawk. Sometimes, in summer, 

 when the young are learning to fly, they seem to be 

 everywhere during the evening, and fly about one's 

 head as fearlessly as bats." 



I have been introduced to people who did not 

 like the little red owls, and I did not care to con- 

 tinue the acquaintance. I have known farmers who 

 have had these birds shot, and as a result have suf- 



//'r/ 



Screech-owl. 



fered loss of crops through the devastation of super- 

 abundant mice. I wish they had gone to the poor- 

 house. The little red owl is cunning, I am glad to 

 say, and often ventures into the very midst of a 

 town, strange fancy ! hiding by day on a house- 

 top, but what it finds to eat at night is a question. 

 Not house-top tabbies, more's the pity, and I fear the 

 dove-cots are visited. In this consists the so-called 



