May 23, i903.ll 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
408 
"J won't let him; tie up your bundle now and let 
us go." 
We \vent to the governor's house, and leaving the 
bundles outside we went in. The governor and our 
mate were there. After our greeting I told him about 
the books, and we brought them in. 
- I was about to cut the strings off his bundle when 
he stopped mc and untying them carefully laid them 
away for fishing lines. Then sitting down on the 
floor he acted like a boy over his first pair of boots. 
"Why, here are more books than I ever expected 
to see again, and all nice, clean ones, too Now the 
women and girls must go to work and cover them right 
oflf before they are given out,'* 
He piled therii on a table now, then turned_ his -at- 
tention to John's bundle. "What have you in that, 
John?" 
"He has some flannel for dtithes and a few things 
that I got for him. He must be let keep them. I 
have given John a few books; he was afraid that you 
might take them. Yoii must not take anything I give 
these boys from them, governor, I won't allow that 
to be done, remember." 
"Oh, I won't take anything from them. Let me 
see that bundle, John." 
John was slow about letting him see it; he was still 
afraid of being plundered. John saw his knife for the 
first time now and made a grab for it. 
. "Let me sec that knife, John," the olfl fellow told 
him. 
John had shoved it into his shirt bosom; he brought 
it out very slowly now. 
"It is a better one than I have, but that boy has no 
business with it. He will cut himself or some one 
else before he has it an hour; he has never had a 
knife yet." 
"Well, he has that one now, let him have it. I had 
about two dozen of these knives. I will give you and 
John's father good ones. Can't I give the rest to 
your boys?" 
"Yes, give them anything you can spare them except 
tobacco. If one of them asks you for anything let 
me know it." 
"Yes, sir, I'll bring him right here. Now, governor, 
if one of these boys should happen to forget your or- 
der and ask me for a few fish hooks or a knife, we 
need not half kill him, you know; how am I to know 
what a boy wants unless he asks for it? Our boys at 
home would ask me for what they wanted quick 
enough." 
Next he got hold of the fish hooks. "Here 
is what I want Do you know that these boys have lost 
all the hooks I had and can lose them as fast as I can 
make them ? I want to set the boys to fishing to keep 
them out of mischief." 
"Well, you don't want those hooks to do it with; 
those are for John. I can ^et you all you want to- 
morrow." ^ 
"Let me do that now," the mate says; "the steward 
has them." 
He next got hold of the books and asked if Cook 
were not an Englishman? 
"Yes, it was he who discovered this island of yours 
and a lot of others. He found one too many when 
he found the Sandwich Islands; the Kanakas killed him 
there." 
"Yes, I must read about him when I get time and 
about Columbus, too; I have heard of him." 
"Here is 'Peter the Whaler,' sir." 
"Well, John will want that; he wants to go whaling; 
they all do, but they won't." 
"Maybe some of them will before I get through with 
them; I need not tell you about it, I thought." 
After the books had been returned to John, we set 
out for John's house for dinner. His father proved 
to be the man who had come aboard us that morning. 
The house was one of the largest in the village, none 
of them being very large. It had a living room with a 
small kitchen in the rear. The front room had a rough 
table with a number of benches around it; the floor 
was the earth beaten hard and smooth; but as laide 
as these houses were, they were the best T had seen 
yet on any of the South Sea Islands. 
The beds were ranged around the wall and screened 
with mats, and a number of shelves had pieces of 
English pottery, flowers and shells; everything was 
neat and clean. 
John hid his bundle, then going back to the kitchen 
brought in the whole family, his father and mother, a 
sister older than he and a boy about ten years old. 
The boy ran out again as soon as he saw me, but 
John dragged him in again, and in five minutes I had 
him climbing all over me. His name was Albert Ed- 
ward, a namesake of his then Royal Highness, the 
present King of England. This boy was ready to 
go whaling, also; in fact, before I left every boy on the 
island was ready to go. John's mother turned out to 
be the governor's daughter; that made Johij the old 
fellow's grandson. 
The girl brought in for dinner a dish of roast pork, 
yams and string beans, and bread made of corn and 
taro root. The woman was sorry that she had no 
white bread for me, but I told her that I ate corn 
bread at home when I could get it. After dinner the 
bundle got -another overhauling. John's mother said 
that there was cloth enough there to make clothes for 
half the boys on the island. I told her to make it up 
for her own two boys. She was glad to get the 
needles; she said there were only four of them here 
now among all the women. I told her I would bring 
her plenty for them when I next came ashore. She 
brought out an old pair of scissors that had come ofiE 
the Bounty; they were curious looking things; I told 
her I had plenty of nice steel ones on the ship, and I 
would get them for her to-morrow. I gave her a 
dozen pair, and received those old ones of hers, and 
brought them home with me; they are in a museum 
now, together^ with a knife and fork, probably 100 
years old, which she had, and a number of spoons 
made of horn. 
John now gave his orders about how he wanted his 
clothes made; he wanted a jacket like mine and a shirt 
with a wide collar with anchors on it, such as I had. 
She could make the shirt, but did not know about the 
anchors; I told her I would get the anchors for him. 
Then we started out to see the village. 
Cabia Blanco 
I ^ My Next Door Neighbors. 
The family which for years has taken the home next to 
mine for the spring and summer moved in not long ago, 
and T am very glad to see them back again, They are 
good tenants, quiet and attentive to their own affairs— 
not mine. They keep no dogs; their children break no 
glass; they never ask me to do any repairs on their 
house. Their water pipes do not burst, their ceilings do 
not fall, and if there are anj' leaks in their roof during 
bad storms, they never say anything about it to me. Of 
course, like other mortals, they have their peculiarities, 
and occasionally I see people staring rather hard at the 
head of the house who always wears a red coat. But, 
on the other hand, he never obtrudes his taste in dress on 
his neighbors, and I feel that any little eccentricity of this 
kind is more than made up for by his general good man- 
ners. And if the husband's taste in dress is a little pro- 
nounced, his wife is very modest in hers, for she is always 
becomingly clad in gray. Perhaps she is a Quaker. 
I feel that I am very lucky to have such tenants. Their 
home is only about twenty feet from my house, and of 
course such close propinquity gives great opportunity for 
annoyance ; but we get along splendidly. 
I think that very likely my tenant has the same good 
opinion of his landlord that I have of him. He pays his 
rent regular]}', and is never troubled by me. In fact, 
I have never spoken to him, and there is no intercourse 
between the families. If circumstances ever brought it 
about in just the right way, I feel sure that the two fami- 
lies might associate with pleasure and profit to both. But 
perhaps it is better to take no risks. That we have not 
met on a social footing seems a little odd, for if I recol- 
lect aright, they have occupied their present home for 
parts of ten or a dozen years. Perhaps this failure to 
get better acquainted may be accounted for by the fact 
that we do not speak the same language. I am a kind 
of a foreigner, for my ancestors came to America onb' 
about 27s or 280 years ago, while his have been here 
for uncounted ages. I make myself most easily under- 
stood only in English, while he uses the language that all 
screech owls have spoken since the beginning of time. 
Very likely he may feel for me something of the con- 
tempt which many true Americans — so-called— have for 
all recent immigrants from the old world. 
In the tremendously stout branch of an old oak tree 
which stands twenty feet or more from the corner of 
the house, there is a hole perhaps thirty feet from the 
ground, where long ago a side branch was broken off. 
This hole is the home of my next door neighbors, a pair 
of little screech owls (Megascops asio). 
Each year about Februarj' they make their presence 
known by becoming tuneful, and from five or six o'clock 
F. M. to midnight the male bird may be heard trilling his 
love song on the branches of the trees close to the house. 
In March there is less of this shrill song, but often at 
night a turious cooing sound is made by the birds, their 
voices rising and falling as they whisper to each' other 
among the branches. Now, too, they begin to be seen; 
either standing in the mouth of the hole at evening and 
in the morning, or just at dusk flying about among the 
branches of the oak, or passing from tree to tree and 
bush to bush about the place. 
Every spring they are looked for with interest, and if 
for any reason they do not appear, great disappointment 
is felt by all members of the family. 
It is usually toward the last of March that they become 
rnost active and begin to be most frequently seen. Some- 
times they alight in the wistaria vines on the house and 
w-ithm a few feet of the building. I remember that on 
March 29 a few years ago, one of them was discovered 
about seven o'clock in the evening, standing on the top- 
most twig of a little lilac bush about four feet from the 
piazxa and not more than eight from the steps up and 
down which people were passing into the house. The 
twig on which the bird Avas perched was hardly as thick 
as a lead pencil, and it stood on the extreme tip. Every 
now and then the strong wind which was blowing in 
gusts from the west caused it to lose its balance, and it 
was forced to flap its wings and to reach otit one foot and 
grasp the twig further down, to hold itself on its perch. 
For the rest of the time it stood quite motionless and 
bent forward, as if scanning the ground eight or ten feet 
below it. It remained here for nearly fifteen minutes, 
and then someone passing near with a little more noise 
than usual, disturbed it and it flew away, and at the same 
time its mate flew out from a neighboring .spruce tree. 
This spring there was some doubt as to whether their 
house would be vacated by its winter tenants in time for 
them to take possession. Often the gray squirrels occupy 
it during the winter, and sometimes carry so great a 
quantity of leaves and other rubbish into 'it, that it is 
really impossible to get it cleaned out in time. This 
year, also, a couple of starlings were seen loafing about 
the hole in March, and it w'as thought possible that they 
might take possession and decline to yield to the old time 
occupants. However, none of these things happened, and 
at the proper time the Megascops family moved in. 
The hole occupied by the owls faces west, and often 
when I am dressing in the morning I see one of the birds 
sitting there with half its body exposed, its chin sunk on 
Its breast, apparently asleep. As the sun gets higher and 
the light stronger, the bird gradually sinks down and dis- 
appears. Yet sometimes at eight o'clock or half-past, 
ns gray head may be seen rising into view, and it looks 
out for a moment or two and then again sinks back out 
of sight. 
We believe that the eggs are laid and the female begins 
tc- sit quite early in April, but about this we cannot 
be sure. Sometimes during the first two weeks in April, 
Just after sunset, an owl is seen sitting in the hole, show- 
ing Its whole body. Usually it sits motionless, looking 
toward the setting sun, but if one raps sharply on the 
window pane with the knuckles the bird may turn its 
head to see what the noise Is, and then look back to the 
west, and will pay no- attention to further rappings. 
It has usually proved that the two birds are different 
in color, the male being red and the female gray. While 
the female is sitting, it is not always easy to see the owls, 
for during the day the male does not move at all, but re- 
mains hidden away in some secret recess which is not 
always known. Some seasons this resting place is in 
the top of a pine tree, among the thick needles, where it 
is very hard to see the bird, but one year he spent the day 
on the horizontal branch of a hemlock tree which 
stretched out over the lawn, and was exposed to the full 
glare of the sun. From one point on the branch grow 
half a dozen small but rather thick-leaved twigs, and the 
owl used to sit among these, which perfectly concealed 
him. His perch was about ten feet above the heads of 
people passing across the lawn, but usually he paid no 
attention to such passcrsby, unless, as sometimes hap- 
pened, they stopped beneath him and pointed at and 
talked about him. Then he was likely to draw in his 
feathers and erect his horns. 
Just about sunset every evening the little red owl com- 
monly leaves his place of concealment and flies to a 
nearby branch of the oak tree over the drive, to wait there 
for half an hour until it shall grow dark. The children 
are usually playing or riding their bicycles on the drive, 
shouting and screarning, and while he is not in the least 
disturbed by the noise, he appears to take some interest 
in their movements, and bends over to watch them. 
About the last of April the birds are commonly seen 
together among the branches of the oak, and it is there- 
fore supposed that the young are hatched. Often at this 
time they are seen to have something in their bills which 
they take to the holov and from this time on they seem to 
be hard at work feeding their young. 
For two or three seasons toward the end of April the 
children used to find about the place the bodies of Eng- 
lish sparrows. Sometimes these were headless, at others 
their breasts had been torn away. When the head had 
been cut off, this had been done with great neatness, as if 
with a sharp instrument. The death of these sparrows 
was attributed to the owls, and it was hoped that they 
v/ould continue the good work. 
One day, after one of the boys had come home from 
school, he was looking at the owl and saw beside him on 
the branch on which he was perched two small colored 
objects. As he could not tell what they were, he climbed 
the tree, and found two song birds placed side by side, 
apparently for the owl's dinner. On several occasions 
after this, feathers of thrushes, scarlet tanagers and 
warblers were found on the lawn. 
One day in June as w^e were at dinner, Sylvia came 
rushing in and told us that a baby owl was to be seen in 
the hole. This caused great excitement in the family, 
and everyone left the table to look at the owl. Later 
in the evening a second head was seen. Then it was sug- 
gested that a ball be tossed in the air near the hole to 
see what would happen. As soon as the young owls 
saw the ball pass near them, they climbed out of the hole 
and looked on with the greatest interest. 
The next night one of them fell from the tree, which 
drew a family crowd. When it was picked up, the mother 
owl flew close to the head of the person holding it, snap- 
ping her bill and uttering a low whistle. The little owl, 
placed on the branch of a tree, climbed bravely upward, 
and before long was out of the way of cats or dogs. Both 
young owls were covered with white down, but already 
had wing feathers strong enough to keep them from being 
hurt by falling. Several times after this they fell, but 
always, vvhen given a fair start, were able to climb pretty 
high again. The old owls were seen until mid summer, 
and often spent the day in plain sight on the branches of 
the oak, where they were seen by visitors, who fre- 
quently insisted that stuffed birds had been put up in the 
tree for the purpose of hoaxing them. 
Several times during the summer the male owl was 
seen sitting on the gravel in the walk with his wings 
partly extended, apparently taking a sun bath. Yo, 
False Natural History* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
■ In an article arraigning Mr. John Burroughs, your 
contributor Hermit lucidly remarks, "Keen observers 
are springing up throughout the world and their studies 
of nature are deeper and far more logical and far 
beyond the knowledge of Mr. B. Possibly so, and 
Hermit cannot object to a few citations from scientific 
observers, even if they sustain the naturalist that he dog- 
matically condemns. 
With reference to Mr. Burroughs' contention that 
birds fly untaught, it may be said that Spalding has 
shown experimentally that young swallows can fly as 
soon as they reach the proper age. As regards his 
assertion that the bird sings in due time without a 
hint from its parents, Mr. Burrough a little overstates 
the fact. Romanes, Gro OS and W^einland agree that 
while the song of birds is instinctive, it can never be 
SO quickly nor so fully expressed as when the iiarents 
serve as models. 
Mr. B.'s query, "Does a kitten need to be taught 
how to catch his prey," excites Hermit's unbounded 
astonishment, and he innocently remarks, "That a nat- 
uralist should ask such a question is beyond my com- 
prehension." Despite Hermit's contention that 
tutelage is necessary to form a monser or ratter, I 
am convinced that the observation of scores of Forest 
AND Stream readers is to the contrary. Again I ad- 
duce experimental evidence. Prof. W. Mills a few 
years ago subjected a new born kitten to constant 
observation for 135 days. All the doings and misdo- 
ings of the Httle creature from the day of its birth 
were minutely chronicled in a published diary. Before 
it opened its ej^es it spat at a dog, and even at 
the professor's hand when, through fondling the dog 
it had acquired a canine odor. On the forty-second 
day it keenly smelt of the professor's fingers that had 
handled a recently killed mouse, and when given the 
defunct, it seized it with teeth and claws and growled 
when an attempt was made to take it away. On the 
118th day a living mouse in a pasteboard box was pre- 
sented it, whereupon it eagerly smelt of the box and 
followed it when carried away, and when the mouse 
