476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



as, for instance, the many different notes of the brooding-birds, are 

 only heard at certain seasons. In this connection, it may be added 

 that the intelligence of crows is fully one half greater than that of 

 any other bird in our fauna. Instances of the exercise of much cun- 

 ning and forethought on their part are almost innumerable. 



Let us see, however, if among our singing-birds there is not to be 

 found evidence of an ability to communicate ideas, presumably by the 

 aid of vocal sounds. Here is an occurrence that took place in my pres- 

 ence in the spring of 1872. A pair of cat-birds were noticed carrying 

 materials for a nest to a patch of blackberry -briers hard by. To test 

 their ingenuity, I took a long, narrow strip of muslin, too long for one 

 bird to carry conveniently, and placed it on the ground in a position to 

 be seen by the birds when searching for suitable materials for their 

 nests. In a few moments one of the cat-birds spied the strip and en- 

 deavored to carry it off, but its length and weight, in whichever way the 

 bird took hold of it, and he tried many, impeded its flight. After 

 worrying over it for some time the bird flew off, not, as I supposed, to seek 

 other materials, but, as it proved, to obtain assistance in transporting the 

 strip of muslin in question. In a few moments it returned with its 

 mate, and then, standing near the strip, they held what I consider to 

 have been a consultation. The chirping, twittering, murmuring, and 

 occasional ejaculations were all unmistakable. In a few moments this 

 chattering, if you will, ceased, and the work commenced. Each took 

 hold of the strip of muslin at about the same distance from the ends, 

 and, starting exactly together, they flew toward their unfinished nest, 

 bearing the prize successfully away. 



I followed them as quickly as possible, and, reaching the brier- 

 patch, never before or since heard such an interminable wrangling and 

 jabbering. Had I not seen the birds, I doubt if I should have recog- 

 nized them from their voices. The poor birds simply could not agree 

 how to use so long a piece of material to the best advantage. If it had 

 been shorter, they might have made it serviceable ; but as it was, being 

 neither willing to discard it nor able to agree as to its proper use, they 

 finally abandoned it altogether, and so too they did the unfinished nest 

 and the neighborhood. 



In one corner of a low-lying tract near my house, called the " mucky 

 meadow," there remains a clump of large maples, pin-oaks, and birches 

 which have somehow been spared by the former owners of the land. 

 They are mine now and are safe. At the first white frost, the hollow 

 maple, that throughout the summer has securely housed a family of 

 short-eared owls, now gives us evidence of the fact, by dropping the 

 leafy screen that hid them well from view. While the young were yet 

 babies the old tree shielded them well — now they are able to shift for 

 themselves, and the tree offers them shelter, but nothing more. With the 

 departure of the sunlight the owls are all astir, and it is funny enough 

 to see them. Of a single owl but little can be said ; but before the 



