The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-28
OlV Is.
G. Greene,

It is hardly to be wondered at that
 owls are regarded by many as objects of superstitious dread. The fact that most of them are nocturnal in their habits shrouds them in darkness and
 mystery, and their noiseless flight rem ders their actions still more obscure
 Moreover, there are few sounds better
 calculated to add to the feelings of awe
 with which these creatures are regard
 ed by the ignorant and superstitious,
 than the wierd, unbird-lilSe voices with
 which they break the stiffness of the
 night Even the appearance of an owl
 by daylight is far from reassuring to
 nervous persons The round luminous
 eyes, which stare at one from the broad,
 flat face, above the nose-like down.
 turned bill, give the bird a strange
 half-hunlan expression, and although
 he cannot roll his eyeballs. the way in
 which he can turn his head around
 without moving the rest of his body, is most uncanny.
 As matter of fact, however, owls are not only perfectly harmless and in- offensive. but may be numbered among the most powerful friends of the agri- culturist. As they are all birds of prey. and most of them feed by night, they naturally destroy vast numbers of rats, mice, nloles and other small nocturnal mammals, which are a source of great annoyance and considerable loss to the farmer. Unfortunately the latter sell dom appreciates the benefits received. Under the impression that the owls have designs on his poultry he repays the inoffensve birds in cold lead.
 With the exception of one species, perhaps not one owl in a hundred ever touches poultry, and the exception, the great horned owl, by this destruction of noxious mammals probably more than pays for the damage he intlicts.
 The 1ast-named bird is our largest resident owl measuring almost two feet in length. As his name implies, he has two prominent tufts of feathers or horns" on the top of his head, and whenever these can be seen they prove his identity at once, for such appen- dages are not possessed by any other large owl in eastern North America,
 This fierce bird lives chiefly in the heavy wooded parts of the country, where it begins to nest while the snow is still upon the ground. It is not much of an architect, and the eggs are usual y laid in an old hawks, crows or squirrels nest, which has been more or less patched up for the occasion.
 There is no denying that the horned | owl is partial to poultry and game, and | If it were not that he did such great l service in killing rabbits, mice and oth- ,r destructive mammals, there would be every excuse for shooting him.
 A good idea of his feeding habits may | De had from a report made in 1893 by | MT. A. K. Fisher of the United States | department of agriculture. MT. Fisher | lad examined the stomachs of 127 great | horned owls, and, of these, thirty one contained poultry or game birds; eight, l other birds; thirteen, mice; sixty-five, | other mammals; one, a scorpion; one, ish; ten, insects, and seventeen were .mpty. The horned owl is one of the ! ew animals which will eat a skunk 1, md the odor of his feathers often be- rays his fondness for this delicacy
 The usual cry of this bird is "hoo-h hoo loo-hoo, who-o-o, Who-o-o, uttered in loud, muttering bass voice. But he lad another, rarer call a blood-curd- ing shriek, which is apt to raise the lair of any belated traveller who may lear it for the first time.
 A slightly smaller bird than the pre- eding is the barred owl, which is also habitant of the deep woods. This ,ird has no horns" and it's plumage uggests that of Plymouth Rock hen. ts eggs are sometimes found early in darch, usually in a hollow tree. The arge owls, preying, as they do, chiefly pon mammals which neither migrate or hibernate, are fairly sure of their pod supply even during cold weather, nd they are thus in a position to pro- idle. for a family much earlier than irds of prey which feed largely on rogs, insects. migratory birds and oth-