The suitor thought her hearing dull, And for her felt quite sorrowful. Again by frantic efforts he Did try to woo her from her tree; “Pray, loveliest owl, The forest’s pride, Descend and be My beauteous bride. “A wedding feast of mice we’ll keep, When cats and gunners are asleep; We’ll sail like shadows cast at noon, Each night will be a honeymoon.” To this she answered Not one breath; But sat unmoved And still as death. Said he, “I guess that she’s the kind That people in museums find; Some taxidermist by his skill Has stuffed the bird, she sits so still. Ah me! that eyes Once made to see Should naught But ghostly spectres be.” At this she dropped her haughty head And cried, “I’m neither stuffed nor dead. Oh! weird and melancholy owl, Thou rival of the wolf’s dread howl, Since fate so planned, I’ll not decline To be for life Your valentine.” —Florence A. Van Sant, in _Bird-Lore_. “Are any of these other Owls here useful?” asked Sarah, who had been looking at the birds in the glass case while Gray Lady talked. “This great big one with feather horns looks as if he could eat a little lamb or a big rooster if he tried.” “That is the Great Horned Owl,” said Gray Lady, “and fortunately he is very uncommon here in New England, for he is a cruel and wasteful bird, unsociable and sulky, killing chickens, and even turkeys and geese, and often merely eating the head of its victim and then killing again; it is the worst of all the birds of prey, and no excuse can be found for its behaviour. “The Barred Owl on the shelf beside the Great Horned, though having a smooth head, is sometimes mistaken for the fierce Owl and shot for its sins. Aside from sometimes killing birds, it is a useful Owl, eating mice, rabbits, red squirrels, etc. This is a remote, lonely sort of an Owl, with a dismal hoot, as one man described it: ‘Hoo-ooo-ooo-ho-ho-ho-too-too-to-to!’ sometimes interspersed by a laugh and then a wail. I disturbed a young bird once, causing one of its parents great uneasiness. It is impossible to describe all the notes uttered by it at this time; they were rendered in a subdued muttering and complaining strain, parts of which sounded exactly like ‘old-fool, old-fool, don’t do it, don’t do it!’ “There are two other owls that are very useful; one is found all through the United States, and the other is a more southern species, found usually south of New England. The first is the Short-eared or Marsh Owl, and the other is the Barn Owl.