utes, seventeen trips to her young with | 
food. 
A gentleman living in the West when | 
there was so much damage done by 
grasshoppers found that the owls were 
living on them and not eating much of 
any Other kind of food. The only way 
he cculd tell what the owls had for 
supper was to shoot an owl once in 
awhile and see what was inits stomach. 
twenty-two other insects, and one 
mouse which it had just taken. Screech 
of them had other kinds of insects. 
A rabbit, a weasel, a mink, or evena 
skunk is good eating for the owl. And 
there are times when one owl will make 
a meal of another owl of smaller size. 
A large red-tailed hawk was once put | 
into a garret where there was a snowy 
owl. 
and partly eaten by the owl. 
great horned owl and a little screech 
owl were shut up in a hay loft together. 
The wings of the big owl were cut so 
There is a saying among country peo- 
ple who wish to seem wise: “I wasn’t 
brought up in the woods to be afraid 
of owls.” 
The hoot owl has so many wild notes 
in his voice that it is not at all strange 
that he scares people who have not 
been brought up in the woods. Be- 
| fore he sends out his proper hoot he 
| sometimes seems to try to frighten 
One barn ow! had thirty-nine locusts, | 
everybody out of the forest with his 
awful shrieks. Sometimes several hoot 
| owls get together in the night to hold 
owls and burrowing owls usually had | 
more than two dozen locusts,and some | 
a concert One of them seems to tell a 
funny story and all the rest break out 
with ‘shouts of he-he-he-he-hi-ht-hi-hi-ha- 
ha-ha-ha, and then they become as 
solemn as any other owls, and the still- 
ness of the night is perfect until another 
| owl has a droll story or song to set the 
| 
That night the hawk was killed | 
A tame | 
he could not fly. After about a week | 
they both became one owl, and that | 
owl threw up the claws, beak, bones, | 
and feathers which had once been use- 
ful to the little screech owl. 
Owls sometimes catch partridges and 
quails. This is not so bad, for they 
pick out the weak birds that are not | 
well, and so keep disease from spread- 
ing among the fine birds. A hunter 
once shot a bob white so that it was | 
not killed but could not fly. He and 
his dog were chasing the bird in the 
grass along a fence hoping to catch it. 
An owl saw the wounded bird and 
thought it belonged to him because it | 
was not well. He came out of the woods 
very swiftly and picked up the bob 
white right before the eyes of the 
hunter. 
In woods where there are panthers 
one will often hear in the night fearful 
cries that make it seem as if some wild 
beast were about to jump down from | 
some tree near by to kill the one who | 
is out so late. Most of these cries 
which frighten people so are made by 
hoot owls. But it is not easy to tell 
whether the sound comes from a_ hoot 
owl or from the throat of a wild cat. 
79 
rest a-shouting at. 
The owl is brave. One that weighed 
less than six ounces once fought a nine- 
pound rooster. A teamster in Maine 
once went to sleep on top of his load 
while his horses ate their oats beside a 
forest road. When he pulled the 
blanket away from his face an owl 
pounced down upon it, perhaps think- 
ing his white skin was a rabbit, and 
tore his cheeks fiercely. He was much 
frightened, having just awakened. But 
he caught the ow! and killed it after a 
short struggle, and called himself 
lucky because his eyes were not put 
out by the bird. 
If the owl is a sober and wise bird 
he forgets all about it when he woos 
his mate. Such awkward dancing and 
foolish boo-hoo-ing is never seen ex- 
cept when the owl is trying to choose 
a mate for life. But he makes up for 
his awkwardness when there are eggs 
to sit upon, for the owl is the best hus- 
band a bird ever had. When there is 
room in the old hollow where the nest 
is he will sit on the eggs with his wife 
and help her hatch the puffy little owl 
children. 
Owls are the best of parents, too, 
for they will risk their own lives freely 
to protect their young. If their nests 
are robbed and the old birds can find 
where their young ones are caged they 
will come daily with food for them 
though they are in great danger in do- 
ing so. 
