THE BARN OWL 
By WILLIAM L. FINLEY 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 14 
Years ago, at the edge of a certain strip of wood, stood an old 
house, the chimney of which was so far gone that it was crumbling. The 
ivy that covered the side of the house spread its arms about the bricks 
as if to keep them from falling away. The children who lived in a 
cottage across the field had to pass this tumbled-down house on the way 
to and from school ; and if they chanced to pass late in the afternoon they 
sometimes heard strange noises. Occasionally, as night came on, they 
saw shadows that moved like ghosts in and about the old house. 
YOUNG BARN OWLS 
Photographed by Finley and Bohlman 
So, for many years, they were afraid of the old place, especially after 
night, for they thought that surely it was haunted. But the shadows that 
flitted in and out the old building were nothing but a pair of Barn Owls, 
and the weird screams that arose on the night-air were but the love-calls 
of these birds. The hissing, choking noises that sometimes issued from 
the rotting doorway were the hungry cries of downy owlets. 
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