A WOOD BY THE SEA 61 



On the third evening the disturbance was more wide- 

 spread and persistent than usual, until the birds could 

 endure it no longer. The cawing storms had been 

 breaking out at various spots over an area of many- 

 acres of wood, when at length the whole vast con- 

 course rose up and continued hovering and flying about 

 for fifteen or twenty minutes, then settled once more 

 on the topmost branches of the pines. Seen from the 

 ridge on a level with the top of the wood the birds 

 presented a strange sight, perched in hundreds, sitting 

 upright and motionless, looking intensely black on 

 the black tree-tops against the pale evening sky. By- 

 and-by, as I stood in a green drive in the midst of 

 the roos ting-place, a fresh tempest of alarm broke out 

 at some distance and travelled towards me, causing the 

 birds to rise ; and suddenly the disturber appeared, 

 gliding noiselessly near the ground with many quick 

 doublings among the boles a barn owl, looking 

 strangely white among the black trees ! A little 

 later there was a general rising of the entire multitude 

 with a great uproar ; they were unable to stand the 

 appearance of that mysterious bird-shaped white 

 creature gliding about under their roosting-trees any 

 longer. For a minute or two they hovered overhead, 

 rising higher and higher in the darkening sky, then 

 began streaming away over the wood to settle finally 

 at another spot about half a mile away ; and to that 

 new roosting-place they returned on subsequent 

 evenings. 



It was a curious thing to have witnessed, for one 



