BIRDS' ENEMIES. 



IV TONE of us know what it is to live in the midst 

 ^ ^ of enemies ; to go to bed at night wondering 

 whether Indians are not hiding in the darkness wait- 

 ing to burn our house and carry us off prisoners. 



Many children, tw^o hundred years ago, w^hen the 

 French and Indians w^re at war with the settlers, saw 

 their fathers load their guns at night and go to sleep, 

 ready to run with them to the blockhouse if the 

 alarm were sounded. 



The birds, like the early settlers, are never free 

 from fear. Their enemies are so numerous, so fierce, 

 so quick, that they must be constantly on the watch, 

 and, like the early settlers, have to guard, not them- 

 selves only, but their young ones and their eggs. 



Most of the birds' enemies are looking for a meal, 

 and hope to pick the flesh off the bones of some 

 plump Robin or Quail. A few are afraid of the sharp 

 bills of the old birds, and so prowl about, hoping to 

 seize the helpless young when their parents are away 

 for a moment, or to break and open the eggs and eat 

 the uncooked omelet which they find in them. 



Some go about boldly by day, either soaring high 

 overhead or sitting motionless on some lookout post, 



