94 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



This one appeared a few years ago, and was capt- 

 ured single-handed by an old lady. She heard a 

 commotion just at twilight in her chicken-yard, 

 rushed out, and saw the great white bird, a total 

 novelty to- her, endeavoring to rise with her pet 

 rooster in his talons. The rooster was putting up 

 a good scrap, and the old lady rushed to his assist- 

 ance, armed with her apron. She got the apron 

 over the owl, and actually succeeded in getting him 

 into the house, though both she and the apron 

 showed the marks of the contest. One of the men- 

 folks then appeared and killed it, and it is now a 

 treasured ornament of the front parlor. 



The barn-owl is not found in our region either, 

 which is a pity, for he is not only one of the most 

 humorous-looking creatures in the feathered king- 

 dom, running a close race for first honors with the 

 penguin and the puffin, but he is also a great de- 

 stroyer of rodents, far exceeding the much- vaunted 

 barn cat, which usually prefers milk to mice. I 

 have often wondered why the bird societies do 

 not try the experiment of distributing barn-owls to 

 regions where they are not at present found. The 

 same barn-owl, in Europe, lives in deserted castles 

 and haunted towers and 



. . . does to the moon complain 

 Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, 

 Molest her ancient solitary reign. 



Undoubtedly he is also the owl who, on a certain 

 famous and romantic evening, "for all his feathers 

 was acold." It is rather curious that two birds so 

 famous in Old World song and legend as the pere- 



