Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday July 1st 1932
Murder Mystery
Nature Red in Tooth & Clay
New Pets for Old
A Wombwell Boy’s Exciting Discovery
This is Geoffrey Goodwin, aged ten, son of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Goodwin, of Netherwood, Wombwell. He is holding up for your inspection a couple of barn owls which he is keeping as pets. Pa Owl is in his right hand; Ma Owl in his left. Strange creatures they are, and perhaps you would like to know how he came by them. This is the story. from his father, who is a fancier.
Geoffrey has inherited a liking for birds and animals. In the top storey of a lofty old building that was once the coach-house of Netherwood Hall he keeps his pigeons. The entrance for the birds is a tiny trap high up in the angle of the gable. but when Geoffrey goes up to titivate their nest boxes he climbs by a long ladder through a hole in the floor. It is a loft any of his chums might envy. But for many months Geoffrey was a disappointed boy. He wanted most of all some young pigeons, but never bad the luck to rear any. The older birds used to nest and lay eggs in the usual way, but as soon as the young birds appeared in the nest they would disappear! Geoffrey took precautions against rats and other marauders, but still the young birds vanished as quickly as they were hatched.
What was the trouble? It couldn’t be cats, because the older birds seemed perfectly content with their surroundings, and besides the hole in the gable was too high for cats to climb to, and there was no other place where they could get in. Geoffrey had seen to that. He was puzzled. He loved his pigeons and hated to suspect them, but gradually the idea forced itself upon his mind that there must be cannibals among them. This suspicion was strengthened when he noticed that on the loft floor were scattered the small bones, feathers, and pelts of creatures he knew must have been brought in from the woods and fields—sparrows, chaffinches, voles, and even beetles.
Then one day Geoffrey made an amazing ‘discovery. Climbing the ladder to tend his pigeons, he noticed two strange-looking creatures among them. There, calmly snoozing on a perch in a shady corner were two owls! Then Geoffrey understood. His first impulse was to make them pay the supreme penalty of their crimes, but on reflection realised that to kill and eat other little creatures was their nature. So, Geoffrey forgave them, took them away from his pigeons, and now keeps them in a little cote of their own, where he regales them on bits of raw meat and other morsels tempting to the owlish appetite. The birds, as will be seen from the picture, are perfectly tame and contented when Geoffrey is holding them, but if a stranger went to pick them up he would soon feel the effect of a vicious peck or a stab from a sharp claw. Mrs. Goodwin tried to hold them up for the photographer, but the gentleman on Geoffrey’s right dug a talon into her finger.
Long before the discovery was made the family had been disturbed by strange noises which, for our special benefit Geoffrey reproduced by whistling between his teeth. The noise was exactly like that made by a tap when the water is being turned off at the main. Probably if the birds had been left a little longer, they would have nested in the loft. It was “a most desirable residence” from the owls’ point of view, the natural food being quite handy! Strange to say, they seemed to be on perfectly good terms with the adult pigeons.