BARRED OWLS IN CAPTIVITY. 125 



Puffy in the midst of a white birch grove near a 

 brook. A cuckoo oj^ened the opera and brought 

 some vireos, including two solitaries. Their ex- 

 plosions were audible a long way, and for a 

 moment or two the air seemed full of birds, 

 nearly all warblers, and all coming towards the 

 owl. I could not count them ; they came by 

 scores and swarmed about incessantly like bees. 

 Most of them were black-and-white creepers, 

 black - throated greens, chestnut - sideds, black- 

 and- yellows, Canadians, and redstarts, young 

 birds predominating. I never expect to see 

 more warblers in one noisy bunch. As a rule, 

 however, a glance or two seemed to satisfy them, 

 and they went off after their suppers. Of all 

 the warblers, the oven-birds were the only ones 

 at all persistent in abusing Puffy. They would 

 come quickly and stay long, with ruffled feathers 

 and anxious notes. One day (July 14), while 

 exploring some dense spruce thickets on a high 

 ridge of Chocorua, I came across a pair of black- 

 poll warblers. They were much excited by the 

 owl and joined with juncos and white-throats 

 in prolonged complaining at his presence. A 

 white-winged crossbill, flying by at the moment, 

 alighted and looked us over, but was apparently 

 not at all interested in Puffy. 



Another bird which never showed any special 

 emotion on seeing the owl, no matter what the 



