Evening star., 1948-12-06
This and That
By Charles Z. Trdce1uell

"sir," writes L J. of Chevy Chase. "1 want to
know about owls and their ways"
Well, sir, owls have peculiar ways
They eat their food whole. fur, bones and ALL
and they have SUCH wonderful functioning
stomachs that the fur and bones are rolled into
neat balls.
Then the OF owl regurgitates these
"Regurgitate" is fancy word for throw up.
It is by counting these balls beneath nest
that people interested in such things know how
many meals an Oh owl has eaten, and what he
ate.
1t is amazing, how some people are always to
be found who are very much interested in such
facts.
The average person is interested only In what
he sees and hears, and maybe tastes, what he
reads in the paper, and what he hopes and fears.
There are some persons, however, with q
burning desire to know what an owl eats
Now, here are some of the things pair Of
owls once ate as discovered by one of these
very inquisittve persons.
They were pair of barn owls, and they lived
in the tower of the Smithsonian Institution.
Two hundred pellets from these birds were
examined
They showed 454 skulls, including those of 225
meadow mice, ITO house mice, pine mice, 20
rats, 6 jumping mice. 20 shrews, star-nosed
mole and l vesper sparrow.
Isn't 1t wonderful, that any one human being
his name was Dr. A. <. F1Sner-could know
so much in given line?
Most of us would not have been able to
identify the living creatures, let alone the mere
denuded skulls.
Owls are the night side Of bird life, just as
hawks are on the day side; that is, each per-
forms, at its preferred time, certain duties for
nature.
These natural duties help make various crea-
lures more interesting.
We all know how buzzards clean up decay
ing meat, and have some elementary knowl-
edge of the way microbes perform in the soil.
We realize the good that common earth
worms do the soil, how even the smallest crea-
ture may be, at times great help, or great
nuisance.
These natural duties of the creatures some
times cause unthinking persons to become
very angry. Despite the fact that anger sours
the blood, causes heart disease and makes
the blood vessels brittle, thousands of people
grow red in the face over hawks.
Hawks in the sky looking for prey, are
doing what comes naturally" as the song
put it, to the very best OF their ability.
Mankind, as a group, would be much better
off if people would let the hawks alone Only
a small handful deserve to be killed and prob
ably most of these should go unmoleSted, too.
Altogether we have too much killing in the
world What is the use of 'ranting about our
great desire for peace, If we keep on having
a civilization based on the daily slaughter OF
meat animals? But that is another story; what
we are talking about today, at MI. Us request,
is owls
Owls are the night side, as stated OF the
killing birds. They pursue many rodents, and
now and then take some small birds. 1t can
not be helped. No one who loves the small
birds should grow too excited about the owls;
there are many other causes of the death OF
songbirds.
Owls have marvellous eyes. Both eyes look
directly forward. To see to one side, the OWL
must turn its head
Some of the owls seem to have verltaole
ruffs around their faces, and with their big
ewes and little ears-some have ear tufts re-
markably resembling ears-they present an
almost human aspect.
Some owls of the same family are gray,
others reddish, and this often puzzles OBJ
servers.
They can see well enough in daylight II
they have to; the idea that they cannot, Is
more or less of grandmother's tale.
There are two great owl groups, the barn
owls, and the others, including the horned or
cared owls, the barred owls, and screen OWLS,
and few more.
Nests are placed in holes in trees, in towers,
steeples, or sometimes banks, or IN deserted
hawk. or crow nest. Eggs number from tnree
to fve and are white. All young owls are
covered with white down.
Barn owls are the hungriest OF the hungry
They eat their own weight in food every night.
These owls Law from to II eggs, usually to T.
Breakfast time, for young owls, is not morn
ing, of course but evening, when the shadow
of the parental wings may be seen coming and
going, as they feed them live food.
That may not seem nice, but 1t is natures
way, and she has been at 1t long time.