THE OWLS AND THEIR BABY

Evening Star, Issue 22026, 11 May 1935, Page 5

THE OWLS AND THEIR BABY

Owls cannot be as wise as they look —no birds ever were—but hero is a story to prdve that thoy are kinder and more affectionate towards their young than their forbidding appearance would suggest. A lady in Hampshire found a halffledged owlet out on the road. She popped it through a hedge and left it in a'field under a big tree. Next day, on going to look for it, she found the nestling on the lowest branch of the tree. It must have been helped there by its parents; she thought, for it was too weak to reach such a height unaided- Next/day it was on a higher branch, but 24 hours later it was on the road again. This time the lady picked ftp the, little owl and took it for safety to hei garden and placed it in a hutch, where it called loudly to its invisible parents. In the morning she found on top of the hutch a dead mouse and a dead sparrow, which the old birds had placed there. Night by night the big owls, brought food for their little one, always placing it, dead, on top of the hutch, until the little , one was grown up and able to fly away. Wo have known an eagle to bring a dead hare to its mate, caught by the _ leg in a cruel spring trap, but this is an uncommon case of a very pretty kind, the care of this baby owl by the old ones.