122 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



content to an astonishing resemblance to an old 

 inoss-grown stump. He effected the transforma- 

 tion by standing up very straight, nearly closing 

 his eyes, and making his feathers lie absolutely 

 sleek against his attenuated body. Once on 

 another occasion when he ran away from me, he 

 climbed to the top of a small oak stump and 

 made himself look so like a continuation of it 

 that I passed him four times without detecting 

 his presence. Not so the pileated, for with a 

 shrieking cackle, his crest gleaming in the sun- 

 light, he flew at the owl so savagely that I ex- 

 pected to see my pet slain on the spot. He only 

 ruffled Puffy's feathers, however, and made the 

 poor bird unhappy for some time by his dis- 

 cordant cries and frequent flights and counter 

 flights. 



Of the thrushes, the robins took the owl 

 most to heart. More than once in black cherry 

 time I have seen sixty to a hundred of them 

 within twenty-five feet of him. Their blended 

 cries always drew hermits and Swainson's from 

 the woods, cedarbirds from their cherry feasts, 

 and detachments of warblers from woods and 

 meadows. The veeries seemed to care least 

 about their enemy ; the hermits said little, but 

 did some hard thinking. The Swainson's, es- 

 pecially after sunset, had a good deal to say in 

 a refined way, flirting wings and tail meanwhile. 



