Page:Bird-lore Vol 06.djvu/168

 “ ﬁotts from th'eln ant: 5am?

A Strenuous Screech Owl

During the summer of 1903 my feeling lot Screech Owls underwent a decided change. a large degree of respect being added to the fondness already felt for the species. It was all due to a family of five young ones which were discovered one day late in May, perched along a branch about thirty feet above the carriage drive. The parents were near and furnished good examples of the two extremes oi color. one being decidedly gray, the other as rusty as a Thrasher. The youngsters were about evenly divided as to color: anti holv comical they were as they craned their necks to look down with those big yellow-rimmed eyes. or hunched up their shoultlerstill the heads were literally buried among the soft feathers!

All the afternoon they sat there in the sun scarcely changing their position. though the old birds had shifted; but about seven o'clock the ta ar qtrat-ering call :lrmlsell them, The rusty parentappeared presently.

and by short ﬂights and many low calls— both the usual tremulous note anti a soft ‘um can run ran.’ that reminded me of the Mourning Dove—persuaded the little ones to leave their perches. But as it grew darker the rusty Owl began to object to rny presence. ﬂying past with loud cracking of the bill and sometimes a sharp ‘ya-‘w raw." and ﬁnally struck me on the side of the head a salt enough low save for the pairot claws that seized calp with a grip that made me sympathize with any mouse they might fasten upon. The bird was gout: in an in» stant. hut 1 had no desire to prolong the experience.

A few weeks later lht: same family. pre— sumably. moved into some trees near tln: house. and any one who approached that quarter atrer dusk was likely to hear rnany hill-crackings and angry, snarling notes. as the old bird—always. so tar as t could judge.

the rusty oner-swooped past the intruder. At first we often replied to the calls. but

this made the rusty le so furious that it several times darted under the roof of the piazza and past our heads. and at last was emboldened [0 make another personal at- tack, this time slightly breaking the skin of the victim. great. and all our calling was stopped. After that the birds made no trouble beyond angry notes and snapping. and by Augusr even these ccased.—Is.tur.t.t..t MCC, LEM- MON. Engltu'aatl. N. J.

The danger to eyes was too

Goldﬁnch and Tree Sparrow— Diﬂerence in Feeding

I noticed last winter a marked differ- ence in the manner in which the Goldﬁnch and Tree Sparrow procure the seeds of the evening primrose when feeding upon the stalks sticking above the The Goldﬁnch ﬂies to the cluster of seed-capsules at the top of a stalk. and clings lhere while it extracts the seeds with its bill. The Tree Sparrow. on the other hand, alighls upon the stalk and shakes it vigorouslyimaking the seed rattle—until it has shaken out a number of the seeds. when it drops down to the snow and picks them “P.7CHRFSWELI. J. HUNT, Philadelphia. Pa.

snow.

Taming a Redreyed vireo

While walking through the yard of Hair- vard University, Cambridge. last summer. my wife antl I uoticed. at the loot of some shtubbery near Appleton Chapel. a young Red-eyed Vireo in the early stages of learn- ing to ﬂy. Just ahove our heads. in the drooping boughs of one of those ﬁne old elms. was the parent lrird with food for its ﬂedgling. could mm'e away it dropped down into the bushes and fed the little fellow, see how close the old bird would venture. we placed the young hird higher up in the bushes and took our stand close by, On her return the old bird did not hesitate. hut

To our surprise, ltefore we

Allxiousto

came within a few feet of us and deliv-

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