I 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
61 
SCHOOL BRANCH DEPARTMENT 
Itfery Wisconsin School Branch is required to subscribe for at least one copy of BY THE WAYSIDE 
Letters for this department should be written on only 
ne side of the page, should give the name, age and ad- 
ress of the writer, and should be mailed by the first of 
he month: Illinois children sending to Miss Juliet Good- 
ich, 10 Astor St,, Chicago, Ill ,' and Wisconsin children 
d Miss Edna Edwards, Appleton, Wis. An honor badge 
/ill beawar ded for each state every month, preference 
eing given to letters about the bird study for the month 
vhich is always ofi this page) and to original observa- 
ons. Any child who wins the honor badge twice will 
eceive By the Wayside fine year as a prize. 
The wren button, which is the badge of the Audubon 
ocie ! y. costs two cents and may be bought from Miss 
uliet Goodrich or Miss Edwards 
I Any Wisconsin School Branch may, without expense, 
ave the use of the Gordon and Merrill Lioraries of bird 
R ooks, by applying to Miss Sophia Schaefer, Librarian, 
79 North street Appleton 
A set of colored bird slides with a typewritten lecture 
lay be rented from Prof. W. S. Marshall, 114 E. Gorham 
treet, Madison Wis. 
Illinois Schools, may use. without expense, a library 
r a lecture with lantern slides, by applying to E. S. 
dams, 439 Elm Street, Chicago. 
The Screech OvOl. 
Length, 8.50-9.50 inches. 
Why this little owl should wear such 
reaky plumage, rusty red one time, mot- 
led gray and black another, without ref- 
rence to age, sex or season, is one of the 
ira mysteries awaiting solution. Fre- 
uentlv birds of the same brood will be 
''earing different feathers, 
* * * 
but 
owever clothed, we may certainly know 
he little screech owl by its prominent 
ar tufts or horns, taken in connection 
/ith its small size. Like the little saw- 
j • . . y j{ • < ; f 4' , *,i 
;het owl. which, however, wears no 
orns, people who live in cities are most 
imiliar with it on women’s hats, worn 
ntire or cut up in sections. 
A weird, melancholy, whistled trem- 
lo from under our verv windows startles 
s as the uncanny voices of owls do, how- 
ver familiar we may be with the little 
needier. It keeps closely concealed 
y day, often in a dense evergreen or in 
,s favorite hollow; and except for the 
ersecution of the bluejav, that takes a 
lischievous delight in routing it from 
;s nap and driving it abroad for all the 
saucy birds in the orchard to pursue and 
peck at, we should never know of its 
presence. In the early spring especially 
it lifts up its voice—too doleful a love 
song to be effective, one would think; 
yet the screecher’s mate apparently con¬ 
siders it entrancing, since she remains 
mated for life. 
In the southern and central portions 
of its range, nesting begins in March; in 
the New England and northern parts 
some time between the middle of April 
and the first of May. A natural cavity 
in a hollow tree, or an abandoned wood¬ 
pecker’s hole are favorite nooks, and 
boxes nailed up under ths dark eaves of 
outbuildings on the farm or in dense 
evergreen trees where the light cannot 
strike the owl’s sensitive eyes, have been 
promptly appropriated in many instances. 
When hunting, the owl moves like a 
shadow, so silently does it pass in the 
darkness. Insects, cut worms and mice 
are what it is ever seeking;, but sharp 
hunger in winter has sometimes led it 
into butchery of little birds. Of two 
hundred and fifty-five stomachs of screech 
owls examined by Dr. Fisher of the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, one hundred 
contained insects; ninety-one, mice; thir¬ 
ty-eight birds; eleven, other mammals 
than mice; nine, crawfish; seven, miscel¬ 
laneous food; five, spiders; four batraeh- 
ians; two, lizards; two, scorpions; two, 
earth worms; one, poultry; one, fish; and 
forty-three were empty. Why in the 
name of all that is economic and humane, 
should this valuable ally of the farmer be 
so persistently shot?—From Birds That 
Hunt and are Hunted , by Neltje Blachan. 
