192 BIRDS OF THE NIGHT. 



regard him as a common enemy, and who show him no 

 mercy when they have discovered him. Here also he 

 rears his offspring, and we associate his image with these 

 solitary haunts, as that of the Loon with our secluded 

 lakes. In thinly settled and wooded countries, he selects 

 the hollows of old trees and the clefts of rocks for his 

 retreats. All the smaller Owls, however, seem to multi- 

 ply with the increase of human population, subsisting 

 upon the minute animals that accumulate in outhouses, 

 orchards, and fallows. 



When the Owl is discovered in his hiding-place, the 

 alarm is given, and there is a general excitement among 

 the small birds. They assemble in great numbers, and 

 with loud chattering assail and annoy him in various 

 ways, and soon drive him out of his retreat. The Jay, 

 commonly his first assailant, like a thief employed as a 

 thief-taker, attacks him with great zeal and animation. 

 The Chickadee, the Nuthatch, and the Red- thrush peck 

 at his head and eyes, while other birds less bold fly round 

 him, and by their vociferation encourage his assailants 

 and increase the terror of their victim. 



It is while sitting on the branch of a tree or on a fence 

 after his misfortune and escape that he is most frequently 

 seen in the daytime. Here he has formed a subject for 

 painters, who have generally introduced him into their 

 pictures as he appears in one of these open situations. 

 He is sometimes represented ensconced in his own select 

 retreat, apparently peeping out of his hiding-place and 

 only half concealed ; and the discovery of him in such 

 lonely places has caused the supernatural horrors attached 

 to his image. His voice is supposed to bode misfortune, 

 and his spectral visits are regarded as the forerunners of 

 death. His occupancy of deserted houses and ruins has 

 invested him with a romantic character, while the poets, 

 by introducing him to deepen the force of their pathetic 



