Screech Owls 
231 
up for bluebirds in his father’s orchard. Al- 
though they had full liberty, in time they be- 
came tame pets, even pampered darlings, with 
a willing slave to trap mice for them in the corn 
crib and hay loft. At first mice were plentiful 
enough, and every day after school the boy 
would empty the traps, climb the apple tree 
and feed the owls. But presently the mice 
learned the danger that may lurk behind an 
innocent looking lump of cheese. One foolish, 
hungry mouse now and then was all the boy 
could catch. This he would carry by the tail 
to his sleeping pets, arouse them by dangling it 
against their heads, at which, while half asleep, 
they would click their beaks like castanets. 
When both were wide awake he would allow 
one of them to bolt the mouse while he still 
held on firmly to the tail. Then, jerking the 
mouse back out of the owl’s throat, he would 
allow the other owl to really swallow it. When 
next he caught a mouse, the operation was 
reversed: the owl that had been satisfied be- 
fore now gulped the mouse first, only to have 
it jerked away and fed to its mate. In this 
way, strange to say, the boy kept on friendly 
terms with the pair for several weeks, when he 
discovered that they liked bits of raw beef quite 
as well as mice. After that he carried his 
queer pets to the house and kept them in his 
room all winter. Early in the spring they 
