146 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



strong colouring on a bird is usually confined to a 

 very small touch on the extreme tip of the feather- 

 ing, the deep effect resulting from these thickly 

 overlapping. Any bird with its feathers standing 

 on end so that the greater part of the feather and 

 the downy covering next the flesh show naturally 

 appears much lighter and of different colour than 

 when the feathers are folded; but even making 

 all due allowance in this respect, I still maintain 

 that the owl of this encounter was a patriarch very 

 near the close of his days. 



Writing of this owl reminds me of three other 

 instances in which I have seen birds of many species 

 mass to attack a common enemy. One of my 

 neighbour boys had a crow that he had taken from 

 a nest and was raising by hand. This bird had 

 the freedom of the neighbourhood and even came 

 to visit me at the Cabin, where I frequently gave 

 him food if I had anything convenient for which 

 I thought he would care. One morning while 

 passing through the kitchen I heard a small pande- 

 monium going on in the back yard. On investi- 

 gating, I found the crow perched on a lower cross- 

 piece of the grape arbour, while taking a peck at 

 him in flight as they passed, were the orioles from 

 a nest in a pear tree across the alley, my bluebirds 

 from a box on the abour, a pair of wrens that had 

 a house on the arbour, the marl ins from the wind- 

 mill, and the robins from half a dozen nests, while 

 there was a liberal sprinkling of English sparrows, 



