88 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



sweet to him. All day he sat in a snug retreat 

 beneath a bush, and, urged by hunger, leaped 

 nimbly forth to fill himself with the food that no 

 other creature wanted. I do not need to witness 

 the performance this time to realize what it was. 

 In an instant that great black shadow was upon 

 him, with upraised wings and gleaming yellow 

 eyes, and crooked, sharp, long claws driven 

 deep into the quivering sides of his victim, that 

 struggles in vain with such a foe. This feath- 

 ered beast will fill himself, eating even the skin 

 and bones if his appetite is keen. I have ob- 

 served one devour a full-grown rabbit at a meal 

 that lasted over an hour. One must not suppose 

 that all this crude material goes through his 

 digesting machinery. Nature has been very 

 considerate in his case ; he has no need to pick 

 and cull, but bolts it down wholesale, and after 

 an hour or two the hair and bones will be snugly 

 put up in cartridge-like lumps, and sent back 

 the way they came down. If this owl had not 

 been in luck with the rabbit he would have 

 looked sharp for a sleeping partridge, or some 

 other bird with its head under its wing. Doubt- 

 less he sometimes hunts all night long in vain, 

 and waits another day for a meal. I have 

 killed one of these owls, that might have been 

 taken for a skunk if one's nose alone was al- 



