BIRD STORIES 



his feathers drawn tight against his body. When the 

 bird-mob got too near him, he looked at them with 

 his big round eyes, and said, ^^Oh!" in a sweet high 

 voice. But his soft tone did not turn away their wrath. 

 They came at him harder than ever. Then Solomon 

 showed his temper, for he was no coward. He puffed his 

 feathers out till he looked big and round, and he snapped 

 his beak till the click of it could be heard by his tormen- 

 tors. And he hissed. 



But twenty enemies were too many, and there was 

 only one thing to be done. Solomon did it. First thing 

 those birds knew, they were scolding at nothing at all; 

 and way off in the darkest spot he could find in the 

 woods, a little owl settled himself quite alone and lis- 

 tened while the din of a distant mob grew fainter and 

 fainter and fainter, as one by one those twenty birds 

 discovered .that there was no one left on the branch 

 to scold at. 



If Solomon knew why the day birds bothered him so, 

 he never told. He could usually keep out of their way in 

 the shady woods in the summer ; but in the winter, when 

 the leaves were off all but the evergreen trees, he had 

 fewer places to hide in. Of course, there were not then 

 so many birds to w^orry him, for most of them went 

 south for the snowy season. But Jay sta3^ed through the 

 coldest days and enjoyed every chance he had of pester- 



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