IN FEATHERS AND FUR, 
87 
There's a variety of the Owl family that you country boys 
know well enough, It's called the Barn Owl, or Screech Owl, and 
I must admit the last name is very appropriate. Many farmers 
and country boys have a great prejudice against this little creature, 
and take every occasion to kill him. 
But so far from being troublesome, he's the most useful servant 
a farmer can have, for he is a wonderful mouse-catcher. 
He's always hungry himself, and to supply the wants of his 
greedy young family, both Papa and Mamma Ow t 1 have to hunt 
hundreds of rats and mice. One pair of these feathered mousers 
is worth a dozen cats. 
Owls live almost all over the world. Even Greenland, the 
frozen land of the north, has its snowy white Owl. 
This poor fellow has a very thick coat of feathers and down, to 
keep him warm, and his white color allows him to travel over the 
snow unseen, and to catch his food, what little there is of it, in 
that bleak country. 
When an Owl is afraid of being caught, he tries to make him- 
self look more formidable by swelling himself out as large as 
possible, spreading out his wings and tail, hissing, and snapping 
his bill together fiercely. But he can't .look very ferocious — let 
him try his best. 
Here is a picture of the baby Owls — looking out of the door 
of their home. Probably waiting for their dinner. 
Not all Owls cry " who ! who ! " 
There is another of the family — the 
Scops Eared Owl — that cries "kew, 
kew," in a sort of plaintive voice, that 
is really quite touching till it gets to be 
p tedious, for this little fellow — only seven 
or eight inches long — will keep up his 
{$ tiresome cry all night, as regular as the 
ticking of a clock. This Owl is too 
c^ small to make war on mice and such 
^^^m^ large creatures, so he lives on beetles, 
grasshoppers and such little fellows. 
Another of the family, that is generally found in our country, 
the Virginian Eared Owl, is one of the large ones, and very fierce. 
He does not confine himself to mouse diet ; indeed, squirrels, ducks, 
sparrows, partridges and many other unfortunate little creatures 
