The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-09-20
Some Things About Owls.
Providence Iournal.I

The farmer has no better friend than the owl, and he who kills one does him. self and the public an injury. White, oi Selborne, after tanning pair of owls was convinced that they brought a mouse to the nest, on an average, every five minutes from sunset to daylight. v
 Owls were never an epieurean feast, but there was formerly an eccentric genius in Newport, Benj jamin Hadwin, who ate them, and, for that matter, any th,ng that had once had the breath of life. Southey once had an owl roasted for dinner, for himself and MT. and Mrs. Wordsworth. give the sequel in his own words:
 We agreed there could be DO pre- text for making owls game and killing them as delicaeies but if you ever eat one, by all means try it boiled, with onion sauce
 An omelet made of owls eggs is said to be a cure for drunkenness. Owls are sometimes stuffed-not for tEe table, but to draw crows within range of the sports mans gun. No love is lost between the crow and the owl, and when the latter is seen perched upon limb the latter goes for him with celeri,y and disregard of all those cautionary measures that usually mark the movements of crow. So eager is he to reach the object of his aversion, that he does not see the gunner until it is too late to beat safe retieat. The ltal- ians use an owl to catch small birds, only in their case the owl is tied to a perch in open ground in broad sunlight, and the birds that gyrate around him alight upon twig smeared with bird lime. In this way they become an easy prey. An owls sight, clear enough and sharp enough at night, is none ot the best by daylight, and it's foraging is done after dark but . story is told of a colored fisherman somewhere in North Carolina, who, hay ing set his fish lines, returned. after a bEief interval, to find that a duck had taken the bait and was hooke 1, and that an owl, which had attempted to capture the duck, had become so entangied in the line that he could not escape. Nor is this the only instance 1 have heard of where an owl meddled with 2 line to it's own destruction. At one time the work men on the Washington monument were a good deal annoyed to ind that plumb line that reached from the top to the bot. tom of the shaft was frequently meddled with. At last it was found that an owl had taken up it's abode in a part of the shaft that afforded shelter, and in passing in and out 1t had disturbed the line.
 An owl was once beguiled into a Geor- gia conference meeting, intent on secur- ing a rat tha, had run into the room to escape from so persistent an enemy. Dazed by the light he sailed around a lev times and alighted upon the bald head of an old man directly in front of the speaker. It is hardly necessary to say what was the next move but the pres ence of the owl may have called to the preachers mind the words of Isaiah, who, when he foretold the desolation of Baby lon, declared that the house should be full of doleful creatures, and that owls should dwell there. An owl once e. rious!y disturbed the mourneTs at a funeral at Beechwood, Ont. With tender care they had placed the remains in a tomb. and were turning away borrowing, when they heard moan that seemed to come from the coffin. Hurriedly they broke the easkes open, ealy to 6nd all quiet within, and then it vas discovered that the noise they had heard came from owls at the far end of the vault At best there |; something far from pleasing in the boot of an owl. The Romans had a dreat dislike to it. A dispute between an owl and a nightingale. as to their re- spective merits as vocAlists, once found readers. Dodsley thought 1t wosth his while to write an ode on the death of an owl, and Brom6eld made the bird the subject of his muse. Many persous b. lieve that an osl will keep his eyes % in- tently hxed on a person walking around him as to vSing his own neck oG, ard it vas not until come qsick-eysd observer discovered tAaa when tho owl had turned his head AaH roe.d, hs vhishsA t haek throush tAe whole ciscle vitA tAs rapidity of kghtaing. and acsd again tAs psssoo who vas experimenting oa him.