Altogether the experiences gained amply repaid me for the effort spent. These visits to the silent ones were payments ample enough in themselves, but my closer acquaintance with a very interesting family made them doubly so. I find that the owl is one of our best and most valuable friends, destroying during a season much of the troublesome animal population that injures the agricultural interests of the land. If careless boys and indifferent "others" could get this fact well grounded and use some other mark in target practice, all parties would be better off and much good gained. To take any life is ill, but to take good life is crime.
Burrowing Owl and Her Eggs.
THE JAYS.
"I know an old man,
His name is Jay,
He wears a blue coat,
And a hat of gray.
He has a nice nest
High up in a tree,