Feathered Fury

Mrs. Rose Newell, a laundress who works for a girls' school in North Tarrytown, N. Y., was walking toward the school along a wooded stretch of road at nightfall one evening last week. Suddenly, from just over her head, she heard a weird, tremulous cry, half wail, half gibber. A hissing, feathered something struck her in the eye, raked her face with cruel talons. Frightened almost out of her wits, Mrs. Newell screamed and started to run. The screech owl followed her, clawed her again before flitting back to its tree. The laundress ran into the school, stammered out her story, was taken to a hospital and treated for eight lacerations and bruises of the nose and eye.

Wondering if it were permissible to shoot ferocious screech owls, North Tarrytown police telephoned a State game warden, failed to find him at home. Few minutes later an unemployed chauffeur reported that he had been attacked by two owls at the scene of Mrs. Newell's encounter but had escaped injury by sprinting and beating at the birds with his hands. Without further concern for the law, a patrolman was sent with a shotgun to the spot, which is opposite the Pocantico Hills estate of the late John D. Rockefeller. The policeman killed one owl, was joined by a Rockefeller warden who shot down four more.

Attacks on humans by U. S. screech owls are not uncommon. Persons who have had the experience know it is indescribably frightening. The birds have a fiercely protective instinct for their young and the onslaughts usually occur when the young are learning to fly. Some years ago a report in a scientific journal of an attack brought out dozens of letters from Oregon to Ontario to Texas recording similar episodes. One Louisiana Negro was said to have lost an eye. Policemen walking lonely beats are frequent victims.

Screech owls are heavy eaters, devour great numbers of field mice, insects and other farm pests. For that reason they are protected almost everywhere in the U. S., although they occasionally eat small birds. New York State game officials admitted last week that the patrolman and the Rockefeller warden had technically violated the law by shooting the owls, but because of the circumstances seemed disinclined to take any action. None of the persons attacked could sue anyone for their hurts or their scares, since neither landowners nor governments are liable for attacks by wild animals.

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