116 rilOM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



proaoh with noisy demands for food. I began 

 handling' them with heavy gloves whieh their 

 beaks and talons made little impression upon. 

 Gradually I came to use my bare hands, and 

 with Puffy especially I was soon on familiar 

 terms. The way in which I accustomed him to 

 handling was by first rubbing the top of his 

 head with one finger, and then softly rubbing 

 the back of his head and neck with my finger 

 tips. During the process he seemed almost mes- 

 merized, although occasionally he would recover 

 himself and make a swift snap at my retreating 

 fingers. In the course of a few weeks I gained 

 sufficient influence over both birds to carry them 

 about with great freedom, always beginning by 

 pushing their heads down, and then clasping 

 them round their bodies just below the wings. 

 If turned on their backs while thus held, they 

 remain entirely quiet. 



During the greater part of the long winter I 

 keep them in a closet in my main cellar. I fomid 

 to my cost that I could not keep them in the 

 sunny cellar where my hens were, for the reason 

 that they caught and ate some of my pidlets and 

 terrified the survivors so that their lives were a 

 burden. Their only delicacies in these months 

 are mice. Their attitudes in chasing a dead 

 mouse dragged over the cellar by a string are 

 striking. Fluffy sails noiselessly over the ground 



