Part 50

A few years ago a screech owl went through a broken window into the attic of a house in New Jersey, and lived there all winter. The family were bird-lovers, so they let her stay. She liked it so well that the next spring she made her nest there and hatched out three little owls. The little ones were not at all afraid of people, and a son of the family made many photographs of them.

After the owlets were grown, the whole family disappeared, and lived out of doors the rest of the summer. But when cold weather came, the old birds came back and stayed all winter again. They have made their home in that attic, and reared a brood every spring since. They are always very social among themselves. They talk and sing, and make many sorts of noises.

One of the queerest of the owl family is the little BURROWING OWL of the West. The Florida Burrowing Owl, found in Florida, differs only a little from the Western bird. The burrowing owl is a comical-looking fellow, only about as large as a robin. He has very long legs for an owl, and is dressed in grayish brown.

This bird is said to have very polite manners. In some places he is called the "how-do-you-do owl." He is always bowing, and turning from side to side, and seems to be greeting you as you come near him.

The burrowing owl likes a comfortable home underground, out of the way of enemies. In the West, where he lives, prairie dogs are plentiful, and they are always digging out passages and rooms, more than they can use. So the owl has no trouble in finding empty quarters to live in.

But in California, and places where are none of the digging dogs, the little owl rooms with some of the ground squirrels that burrow there. He must have an underground home in that land where trees are scarce, and he has no fancy for digging. Even if he wanted to dig, his feet are not fitted for it like the feet of the little beasts.

The burrowing owl has no trouble in taking a house where he finds one to suit him, for he's a savage little fellow. He can kill squirrels and prairie dogs much bigger than himself, and even rattlesnakes, which take lodgings in the prairie dog houses also. He feeds upon all these creatures. He eats also crickets, scorpions, and many troublesome insects. This makes him valuable to farmers, for nearly all these creatures destroy his crops.

Remember, too, that birds have great appetites; as I have told you, they eat more than their own weight every day. In that way they dispose of enormous numbers of pests. It almost seems as if a bird were a sort of eating machine, made on purpose to work for us. We should never forget this.

This bird, like most others, makes many different sounds. His song is a soft "coo-oo," something like that of a mourning dove. When a stranger comes to his home and he is there, he gives a rattle which sounds like a rattlesnake. This scares people, and perhaps animals, away, for no one wants to meet a rattlesnake in a dark hole. I wonder if the bird learned this trick living in the same house with the snake.

The Department of Agriculture has proved owls to be among the most useful of birds. Their food is almost entirely of hurtful creatures, and they come out at night when other birds are asleep and are ready to hunt the pests which do the same.

FOOTNOTE:

See Appendix, 25.

XXXIII

THE BARN OWL FAMILY

(Strigidæ)

THIS is a small family of which we have but one member in America, the AMERICAN BARN OWL. He is found all over the country, as far north as southern New England, but he is one of the shyest of birds. He comes out only at night, and hides so well in the day that he is not often seen, even where he is common. So very little is known of his ways.

When he does happen to come out, and any one sees him, a great deal is said about him. For he is a very odd-looking fellow indeed. He is all in gray and white, clouded and speckled and barred, and his face is the strangest of bird faces. It is three-cornered, and looks more like a monkey's than a bird's. If he shows this face in the daylight, he is generally caught or shot, and the newspapers make a great fuss about him. Some one says he looks like a toothless little old woman, with a hooked nose.

Happily for the barn owl, he does not often come out. He loves quiet more than anything. He seeks a hidden, safe place, not only for a nest, but to spend his days in. He is almost the only bird who may be said to live in a home.

When house hunting, this bird will take a snug cavity in a tree, or an empty building. He does not despise an old mining shaft, or a burrow in the ground. He delights in a church steeple or a barn. Almost any place that is quiet and out of sight of the world will suit him.

All day the barn owl stays at home. But in the evening he comes out for his dinner, and then there is havoc among the small animals. Rats, ground squirrels, mice, bats, small snakes, grasshoppers, and almost anything else that is eatable are welcome to him. He should be protected because he is so useful.

This bird is an amiable fellow too. He has been known to live pleasantly in a church tower with pigeons, whom he could easily kill to eat if he wished. He is a hearty eater himself, besides feeding a family of five or six little fuzzy white owlets great quantities of food.

One of these owls has lived for years in a tower of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. In the Zoölogical Collection of that city, there was, not long ago, another of the family alive. Wishing to have more of them in the Zoo, some one watched the nest of the tower bird. When her little family of seven was about ready to fly, he took them away, and gave them to their caged relative. She promptly adopted the whole party, and reared them with the greatest care. No doubt she was glad to have something to do. Life in a cage must be very tiresome for wild birds and beasts.

Mr. Reed of Philadelphia has told us how a pet barn owl threw up the castings. These, you know, are the bones and skin of mice and other creatures which are thrown up awhile after eating. He would bow his head and shake it very hard. Then raise it and jerk out the little ball.

This bird was very tame. The place where he liked best to sit was on the arm or shoulder of his master. If the man wanted to do anything except play with him, he had to get a stuffed bird to amuse the living one. It was like a doll for a baby girl. When the owl was not perfectly comfortable, he kept up a constant cry, so his master had to keep him well entertained and fed.

The note of the barn owl is a wild screech. One is sometimes heard making this sound, but he is never heard flying, for, like other owls, he is dressed in soft feathers that make no rustle.

FOOTNOTE:

See Appendix, 26.

XXXIV