70 ' WINTER NEIGHBORS. 
seek out smaller cavities. An old willow by the road- 
side blew down one summer, and a decayed branch 
broke open, revealing a brood of half-fledged owls, 
and many feathers and quills of bluebirds, orioles, and 
other songsters, showing plainly enough why all birds 
fear and berate the owl. 
The English house sparrows, that are so rapidly 
increasing among us, and that must add greatly to the 
food supply of the owls and other birds of prey, seek 
to baffle their enemies by roosting in the densest ever- 
greens they can find, in the arbor-vite, and in hem- 
lock hedges. Soft-winged as the owl is, he cannot 
steal in upon such a retreat without giving them 
warning. 
These sparrows are becoming about the most no- 
ticeable of my winter neighbors, and a troop ot them 
every morning watch me put out the hens’ feed, and 
soon claim their share. I rather encouraged them in 
their neighborliness, till one day I discovered the snow 
under a favorite plum-tree where they most frequently 
perched covered with the scales of the fruit-buds. On 
investigating I found that the tree had been nearly 
stripped of its buds—a very unneighborly act on the 
part of the sparrows, considering, too, all the cracked 
corn I had scattered for them. So I at once served 
notice on them that our good understanding was at 
anend. Anda hint is as good as a kick with this 
bird. The stone I hurled among them, and the one 
with which I followed them up, may have been taken 
as a kick; but they were only a hint of the shot-gun 
that stood ready in the corner. The sparrows left in 
high dudgeon, and were not back again in some days, 
and were then very shy. No doubt the time is near 
at hand when we shall have to wage serious war upon 
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