New York Zoological Society. 
AMERICAN SCREECH OWLS (Megascops asio). Length: 10 inches. Range: East¬ 
ern North America. 
These birds are very useful to farmers, as they eat insects and rodents. 
Like other owls these birds have their eyes fixed in their sockets and 
must twist their necks to look to one side. It is popularly believed that if 
one walks around them, they will twist their neck till it breaks. A small 
hoy on testing this phenomenon found that the bird did twist its neck indefi¬ 
nitely, but that the neck failed to break. Later in life he discovered that 
“the neck is quicker than the eye.” After each revolution, the head twists 
back to the starting point so quickly that the human eye cannot follow the 
movement. 
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