Familiar Studies of Wild Birds 



dazed by the stunning force of the blow that 

 it was a moment before I could realize what 

 had hit me. Hardly had I recovered my hold, 

 when another similar blow caught me on the 

 left cheek, leaving a good-sized gash beneath 

 the eye, and when I finally reached terra firma 

 I was in a very cut-up and bleeding condition. 

 A visit to the nest the following day found 

 the owls on hand anticipating trouble, and per- 

 ceptibly more ready for a duel after the previ- 

 ous encounter. On the other hand, I also was 

 on the alert, prepared to protect myself 

 against emergency. Climbing to and from 

 the nest proved most hazardous, as the owls 

 seemed to fully realize my awkward position, 

 and therefore took this act to be the signal for 

 attack. During my short observation of the 

 nest, the birds hooted and snapped loudly, and 

 as I started down one of them launched out 

 for me. In a long swift swoop on horizontal 

 pinions, it came on down, the great yellow eyes 



