60 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



caught sight of him; but though I watched for an 

 hour I could detect nothing. 



On the third evening the disturbance was more 

 widespread and persistent than usual, until the birds 

 could endure it no longer. The cawing storms had 

 been breaking out at various spots over an area of 

 many acres of wood, when at length the whole vast 

 concourse rose up and continued hovering and flying 

 about for fifteen or twenty minutes, then settled once 

 more on the topmost branches of the pines. Seen 

 from the ridge on a level with the top of the wood 

 the birds presented a strange sight, perched in hun- 

 dreds, sitting upright and motionless, looking in- 

 tensely black on the black tree-tops against the pale 

 evening sky. By-and-by, as I stood in a green drive 

 in the midst of the roosting-place, a fresh tempest 

 of alarm broke out at some distance and travelled 

 towards me, causing the birds to rise; and suddenly 

 the disturber appeared, gliding noiselessly near the 

 ground with many quick doublings among the boles 

 — a barn owl, looking strangely white among the black 

 trees! A little later there was a general rising of the 

 entire multitude with a great uproar; they were 

 unable to stand the appearance of that mysterious 

 bird-shaped white creature gliding about under their 

 roosting-trees any longer. For a minute or two they 

 hovered overhead, rising higher and higher in the 

 darkening sky, then began streaming away over the 

 wood to settle finally at another spot about half a 

 mile away; and to that new roosting-place they 

 returned on subsequent evenings. 



