LITTLE FOLKS 
are easily caught and eaten by him. His special dainty, however, 
is turkey — in which I'm sure he shows his good taste — but killing 
a wild turkey is no easy undertaking for an Owl, so he resorts to 
stratagem. 
His plan is to sneak around quietly till he sees a wild turkey 
fast asleep, and then pounce suddenly down on its back before it 
wakes, when he can easily dispatch him. But sometimes the 
turkey hears him coming and ducks its head and spreads its tail 
out flat over its back. Mr. Owl alighting on these stiff slippery tail 
feathers, slides off, and the turkey slips into the brush before the 
disappointed Owl knows what is the matter. 
This savage fellow, however, does not disdain tame turkeys, 
nor chickens, and he was a great nuisance to the early settlers, 
because he seemed to think poultry yards were made for him to 
hunt in. Many an Owl has lost his life by the gun of the farmer. 
I have somewhere read a story of a young Owl which was 
caught and tamed. He made friends with the family cat, who 
had some young kittens to care for. He would cuddle up to 
pussy's warm side, and she would purr his welcome. The cat 
showed her good w T ill also by giving mice to him as well as her own 
kittens. 
He lived in this pleasant way for a long time, and the only 
trouble that ever came between them was when the kittens played 
with a live mouse, as kittens will. When the Owlet saw that, he 
semed indignant, and would rush out and bite the mouse on the 
back of its neck, of course killing it at once. He would then walk 
off and leave the kittens to play with the dead mouse. 
Mr. Wood says that Owls have two ways of eating. To dis- 
pose of a mouse, it is thrown up into the air and caught head first 
in the Owl's mouth. It is quickly swallowed with the exception 
of the tail, which hangs out one side of his mouth, and is rolled 
back and forth for two or three minutes, then jerked down his 
throat. 
But if the morsel to be eaten is a bird, he proceeds quite 
differently. He tears it to pieces, and partly pulls out its feathers, 
before eating it. 
