. Boys and birds; or, Miss Truat's mission . ebird which David captured last night in the grovenear his home. You will notice that his eyes arelarge and round, like a cats eyes, and, like pussy, hehas the power of contracting the pupil of the eye, soas to take in more or less light to suit his is the case with all the owl family. With theexception of the snowy owl and the hawk owl, whodo go abroad in the daytime, though preferring thenight season, the owls are nocturnal birds, shunningthe light as though it were painful to them. Iftheir eyes are examined when the light is strong,t
. Boys and birds; or, Miss Truat's mission . ebird which David captured last night in the grovenear his home. You will notice that his eyes arelarge and round, like a cats eyes, and, like pussy, hehas the power of contracting the pupil of the eye, soas to take in more or less light to suit his is the case with all the owl family. With theexception of the snowy owl and the hawk owl, whodo go abroad in the daytime, though preferring thenight season, the owls are nocturnal birds, shunningthe light as though it were painful to them. Iftheir eyes are examined when the light is strong,the pupil will be found nearly covered, only a littleblack perpendicular line indicating its we now wrap a white sheet around our shoulders,we can approach so near as to grasp them with thehand, in which manner I once captured a fine speci-men of the barn owl. These birds, though not soplenty in our neighborhood, are widely scatteredover the country, and are among the tamest of therace. They delight in living around barns or old. Boys and Birds. Page 117. Fig. 12.—Barn Owl and Nest. BOYS AND BIRDS. 117 deserted buildings, where they build their nests inany convenient hole or crevice, and lay from two tothree eggs of a nearly white cast, and oftentimes ofa singularly rough surface. (Fig. 12.) When hatched out, the young owlets are exceed-ingly odd-looking little fellows, peeping out of thenests at any disturbance with a wise and comicalexpression. Here is a picture of three little fellows,as I once saw thempeeping from theirnest in an old syca-more. (Fig. 13.) The children weremuch amused at thesepictures, greeting thelast with a heartylaugh, which theteacher did not seekto repress, and whichquite as much surprised the scholars as did the outbreaks had uniformly been visited withsharp rebukes and severe punishments, and theynow wondered that under any circumstances theycould be allowed to laugh right out in school. Butthe indulgence only served to endear
Size: 1273px × 1963px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1874
