“Oh, but potatoes are of different sizes and shapes,” said Tommy Smith.
“I mean a smallish-sized oblong potato,” said the owl. “That is what my pellets look like, only they are of a greyish sort of colour. Sometimes they are quite silvery.”
“How funny!” said Tommy Smith.
“How pretty, I suppose you mean,” said the owl. “Yes, they are pretty. Now, if you look about under the trees in the fields where I have been sitting, you will see these pretty pellets of mine lying on the grass. Pick them up and pull them to pieces, and you will find that they are nothing but the fur, and skulls, and bones of mice, and shrew-mice, and young rats. Sometimes the skull and beak of a bird will be there, and then it will almost always be a sparrow’s. Sparrows are a nuisance, you know, because there are too many of them. But, as for mice, there will be three or four of them in every pellet (you can count them by the skulls), and you know what a nuisance they are. Let anyone who is not quite sure whether I am a useful bird or not look at my pellets. Then he’ll know, and if he shoots me after that, he must either be very stupid, or very wicked, or both. Well, do you still mean to shoot me when you grow up?”
“Oh no,” said Tommy Smith, “I never will, now that I know how useful you are, and what a lot of good you do.”
The owl looked very pleased at this, so Tommy Smith thought he would take the opportunity to ask his advice about something which had been puzzling him a good deal. “Please, Mr. Owl,” he said, “I promised the rat not to kill him any more. But, if rats and mice do such a lot of harm, oughtn’t I to kill them whenever I can?”
“Certainly not,” said the owl. “A little boy should be kind to animals, and not trouble his head about anything else. No, no; be kind to animals and leave the rats and mice to me.” That was the wise owl’s advice to Tommy Smith, and I think it was very good advice.
“Where do you live, Mr. Owl?” (that was the next question that Tommy Smith asked). “I suppose it is in the woods.”
“No,” the owl answered. “Barn-owls do not live in the woods. The tawny-owls and the wood-owls do. Woods are good enough for them, but we like to have more comfortable surroundings. We don’t object to trees, of course. A nice hollow tree is a great comfort, and I, for one, could not do without it. But it must be within a reasonable distance of a village, and the closer it is to a church, the better I like it.”