92 Mr. Peabody on the 
Eia . i , ij 
ntervals, like minute guns, awakens the superstitious 
feeling of some of the Indians, who call it the bird 
of death. It is on the high authority of Audubon, 
who, as Dr. Brewer tells me, has found this owl 
here, that it is added to the present list. 
In an economical point of view, the birds of prey, 
just enumerated, are of no great importance. The 
hawks, and some of the owls, are powerful birds, 
and, as the depredations of the latter are carried on 
by night, they might be very destructive to the 
poultry, if their numbers were greater. But in so 
extensive a country, most of them can secure food 
without trusting themselves in the vicinity of man. 
For this reason, the great proportion of them do not 
come near us; and those which do, are more likely 
to render service by destroying field-mice and similar 
animals, than to make themselves odious by plunder- 
ing the farm. Instead, therefore, of waging a war 
of extermination against them, it is our interest, if 
not to encourage, at least to let them alone. 
# ge 
OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. _ 
à Before proceeding to describe the omnivorous birds, 
Which come next in the proposed order, it may not 
be amiss to make some remarks on the practice of 
destroying them, which prevails to a great extent in 
Our state. Sometimes it is deliberately done; by 
those who wish to secure their orchards and gardens; 
i 
“it 
