306 The Screech Owl 



trees. The greatest damage to trees occurs in that 

 part of the owl's range where the snow is so deep 

 that it is impossible for the bird to reach the mice. 



YOUNG SCREECH OWLS. 



To the field student of natural history there are 

 no tracks in the snow more common than those of the 

 short-tailed field mouse. They are particularly plenti- 

 ful about hedgerows, brush heaps, stone piles, hay 

 and grain stacks, and farm buildings, while the 

 orchard is one complete network of them. Some- 

 times in the morning one may read on the soft 

 snow a chapter from Nature, written in her own 



