“Acquitted!” said Judge Eagle.  “Long-eared Owl, what have you to say?”

The Long-eared Owl was about fifteen inches high.  He had, as his name implied, long ear-tufts that stood up very straight over his yellow eyes, and thick tawny stockings on his feet and legs.  He was finely mottled above with brown, black, and dark orange, had long brown streaks on his buff breast, and dark-brown bands on his wings and tail.  He gave a hoot and spoke very quickly.

“I’m a good Citizen, too.  I do not eat many birds, and those I do eat are not the useful ones who kill insects; moles, mice, rats, and beetles are my daily food.  But House People do not know this, and limit me until I am almost discouraged; for though I am a Night Owl I do not live in such wild places as some of my brethren, and so I am more easily caught.  I live and nest anywhere I like, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  I rear my young equally well in an old Crow’s nest in a high, tree, or one I build for myself in a bush.  I mean well and am a Wise Watcher.  I know my voice frightens House People, but let them pity me and point their guns at something else.”

“Short and to the point!  Acquitted!” said the Eagle.  “Snowy Owl, it is your turn.”  This beautiful white Owl, marked here and there with black bars and spots, had a smooth round head like a snowball, great yellow eyes, and thickly feathered feet; his bill and claws were black, but you could hardly see them for the thickness of the feathers in which they were muffled up.  He winked with each eye, clicked Iris bill once or twice, and thus began: 

[Illustration:  Snowy Owl.]

“I’m a very good-looking bird, as you see—­fatally beautiful, in fact; for House People shoot me, not on account of my sins, but because I can be stuffed and sold for an ornament.  I do not stay long enough in the parts of the country where they live, to do much harm, even were I a wicked Owl.  My home is in Arctic regions, where my feather-lined nest rests on the ground, and even in winter I come into the United States only when driven by snowstorms from the North.

“At home I live chiefly on lemmings, which are a sort of clumsy, short-tailed field-mice, not good for anything but to be eaten.  When I go visiting I may take a little feathered game, but oftener I live on my favorite mice, or go a-fishing in creeks that are not frozen; for I am a day Owl, and can see quite well in the sunlight.  You never see me except in winter, for I am a thing of cold and snow, whose acquaintance you can seldom cultivate; but if you knew me well you would find me gentle, kind, and willing to be friends with you—­if you do not believe me, ask the Wise Men.”

“Acquitted!  You see we are proving our innocence,” said the Eagle proudly.  But he hesitated a moment before calling upon the Great Horned Owl, as if he himself doubted the honesty of this savage bird.

He was large, nearly two feet high, with very long ear-tufts and great staring yellow eyes in the middle of his large flat face.  He was mottled on the back and wings with buff and black, had on a white cravat, and his vest was barred with black, white, and buff; his sharp black talons were almost hidden by feathers, but not so much so as the Snowy Owl’s.