188 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



fixed themselves upon me. His tormentors soon 

 flew away, and after studying me attentively for 

 some time, the little Acadian floated off out of 

 sight also. 



The young screech owl, whose death at his bro- 

 ther's hands I have already mentioned, irritated 

 the birds of the forest and meadow in the same 

 way. I placed him, one morning, upon a birch- 

 tree which was in use by a family of yellow- 

 breasted woodpeckers as a sap-drinking place. 

 The sapsuckers made a great clamor on seeing 

 him, and their cries called together all the birds 

 which were within earshot. At least thirty indi- 

 viduals came, including kingbirds, cuckoos, cat- 

 birds, veeries, chickadees, four or five kinds of 

 warblers, red-eyed vireos, song sparrows, and two 

 himiming-birds. Having scolded for nearly ten 

 minutes, they departed, leaving a sapsucker and 

 a humming-bird, which soon forgot the owl and 

 resumed their usual employment of drinking the 

 birch-tree's sap. 



Several times during the summer of 1891, 1 

 took my snowy owl out to walk. He weighs 

 three and a half pounds, so the task of carrying 

 him by hand upon an outstretched stick was 

 rather a laborious one. The birds noticed him 

 at once, and scolded as though he were of a spe- 

 cies with which they were unpleasantly familiar, 

 instead of one with which they were presumably 



