CONCERNING SMALL OWLS. 115 



for months. And, better yet, narrate the sum- 

 mer histories of owls at freedom that nested in 

 the old orchard. Or write of the cunning ways 

 of the handsome barn-owls, those beautiful cos- 

 mopolite birds, that made their home in a hollow 

 oak upon an upland field. 



To do this would be to place our common 

 owls where, in the scale of intelligence, they 

 rightfully belong. Of all our birds, they are the 

 least governed by mere impulse, and pass their 

 days, as it has appeared to me, in a most me- 

 thodical and reasonable manner. It has been 

 admitted by many a traveler that to shoot a 

 monkey was too like murder ; they could not do 

 it. Would that every farmer in the land had the 

 same feeling with reference to the owls ; for the 

 same reason holds good, only to a less extent. 



It is true that we know very little about the 

 various cries of owls, but every country lad, at 

 least, knows that the bird's utterances are not 

 merely slight variations of a typical hoot, or the 

 to-whit to-ivhoo of the poets. Well I remember 

 how, evening after evening, when in camp in 

 southern Ohio, the great horned owls made 

 night melancholy rather than hideous, by their 

 sonorous hoo-hoo-hoo ! At first afar off, and 

 then nearer and clearer, sounded their incessant 

 call, as, flitting from one tall sycamore to another, 

 they slowly approached the red glare of the 



