OUR WINTER BIRDS. 133 



ary lead them abroad when the owls are mostly flying, and 

 on moonlight nights these prowlers get many a good meal, 

 no doubt. 



It would seem, therefore, as if the chances of death pre- 

 sented to the lesser winter birds by scarcity of food, rigor 

 of climate, hawks by day and owls by night, outnumbered 

 the chances of life offered by their alertness and enduring 

 vitality. But there are some additional circumstances fa- 

 vorable to their escape from the latter fate, their resources 

 against starvation and freezing having already been ex- 

 plained. One of these circumstances is the vigilance of 

 the birds: they never are forgetful. Sometimes their curi- 

 osity leads them into danger, or an enemy like man, which 

 they do not suspect, may approach them by being very 

 quiet; but a hawk could never insinuate himself into a 

 sparrow's good graces, nor could an owl win his confidence ; 

 both must trust to surprising him or overtaking him in an 

 open race, which is about as difficult as " catching a weasel 

 asleep." Then the hiding-places of the birds in hollow 

 trees, crannies in walls, dense thickets, and brush-piles, dur- 

 ing the night and in bad weather, are such as afford excel- 

 lent security from their nocturnal winged enemies, although 

 quite accessible to foxes and weasels. It is a curious fact 

 that fourteen or fifteen of our January birds choose hollows 



