The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-07-08
MINER PUBLISHING co.
TERMN-BY NAH.
A Chapter ON Owls

As I was seated upon the piazza Of
our hotel last evening, watching the
moon as it came up out of the sea, an
owl gided by, and only for minute
was seen as he passed window through
which the light was streaming, intent,
o doubt, upon his mission, and ap-
parently undisturbed by the music, the
hum of voices. and the red and green
lights that flashed up from the lawns
on Ocean avenue. Owls may often sail
around the pier hotels at night, for
aught that / know, but it is not often
that they are seen. Back in the woods
they make their home, and there their
hooting is as familiar sound as the
croaking of frogs. The farmer has no
better friend than the owl, and he who
kills one does himself and the public
an injury. White, of Selborne, after
tanning pair of owls, was convinced
that they brought mouse to the nest
on an average, every five minutes from
sunset to daylight.
Owls We're never an epicurean feast,
but there was formerly an eccentric
genius IN .ss HswReaSto Sa once se"h had the breath
Of life. Southey once had an owl
roasted for di.l.-er, for himself and Mr..
and Mrs. Wordsworth. I give the Sc
quel in his own words "We agreed
there could be no pretext for making
owls game and killing them as deli
cacies; 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 the
table, but to draw crows within the
range of a sportsmans gun. No love
is lost between the crow and the owl,
and when the latter is seen perched
upon limb, the former goes for him
with celebrity and disregard for 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 gum
ner until it is too late to beat safe re-
treat The Italians use an owl to catch
small birds, only in their case the owl
is tied to perch in open ground in
broad sunlight, and the birds that gy-
rate around him alight upon twigs
smeared with bird-ime. In this way
they become an easy prey. An owls
sight, sharp enough at night, is none
of the best by daylight, and it's forag-
ing done after dark; but story is
told of colored fisherman somewhere
in North Carolina who, having set his
fishlines, returned after brief interval
to find that duck had taken the bait
and was hooked, and that an owl,
which had attempted to capture the
duck, had become so entangled with
the line that it could not escape. Nor
is this the only instance I have heard of
where an owl meddled with line to its
own destruction. At one time the work
men. on the Washington Monument
were good deal annoyed to find that
the plumb line that reached from the
top to the bottom of the shaft was fre-
quently meddled with. At last it was
found that an owl had taken up its
abode in a part of the shaft that af-
forded shelter, and in passing in and
out it had disturbed the line.
An owl once seriously disturbed the
mourrers at-a funernf III BeecnwOod,
Ontario. With tender care they had
placed the remains in tomb, and
were turning away sorrowing, when
they heard a moan that seemed to come
from the coffin. Hurriedly they broke
the casket open, only to find all quiet
within, and then it was discovered that
the noise they had heard came from the
owls at the far enl of the vault. At
best there is something far from pleas
ing in the hoot of an owl. The Ko-
mans had great disliks. to it. A dis
pute between an owl and Il nightingale
as to their respective merits as vocal
lists once found readers. Dodsley
thought it worth his while to write an
ode on the death Of an owl, and Broom
field made the bird the subject Of his
muse. Many persons believe that al
owl will keep his eyes so intently fixed
on a person walking around him as t..
wiring his own neck off, but it was dis
covered by some quick-eyed obaerver
that, when the owl had turned his head
half round, he whisked it back through
the whole circle with the rapility of
lightning. and ia ed again the person
who was experimenting on him.
Providence Jou; aeal.