SOME LITTLE OWLS 105 



taught thing, but stopping and alighting quite 

 different. 



I found them in the grass where they had 

 tumbled and brought them back; then tied each 

 to a sapling while I rigged up the machine and 

 a suitable perch. When all was ready I liber- 

 ated them and attempted to make them pose. 

 I expected resistance, but scarcely of the sort I 

 found, for not only did they refuse to sit side by 

 side, but actually flew at each other, scratching 

 and grabbing with their wicked talons and hissing 

 wrathfully as they tussled. I had seen the bully 

 of the flicker nestful sitting upon the shoulders 

 of his weaker brothers and sisters and displaying 

 his fraternal love by pecking them on the heads 

 to keep them down below him, that he might 

 stay at the door where chances for food and 

 fresh air were best, and I was not unaware of 

 like selfishness among other wild-wood young- 

 sters, but still this tooth and nail set-to of the 

 long-ear youngsters, but a day from the same 

 nest, was a display of brotherly love for which 

 I was scarcely prepared. 



