BIRD ENEMIES 203 



and robins fairly "shrieked out their affright." 

 The news instantly spread in every direction, and 

 apparently every bird in town came to see that owl 

 in the cherry-tree, and every bird took a cherry, so 

 that I lost more fruit than if I had left the owl 

 indoors. With craning necks and horrified looks 

 the birds alighted upon the branches, and between 

 their screams would snatch off a cherry, as if the 

 act was some relief to their outraged feelings. 



The chirp and chatter of the young of birds 

 which build in concealed or inclosed places, like 

 the woodpeckers, the house wren, the high-hole, 

 the oriole, etc., is in marked contrast to the silence 

 of the fledgelings of most birds that build open and 

 exposed nests. The young of the sparrows, — un- 

 less the social sparrow be an exception, — warblers, 

 flycatchers, thrushes, etc., never allow a sound to 

 escape them and, on the alarm note of their parents 

 being heard, sit especially close and motionless, 

 while the young of chimney swallows, woodpeckers, 

 and oriole are very noisy. The latter, in their deep 

 pouch, are quite safe from birds of prey, except per- 

 haps the owl. The owl, I suspect, thrusts its leg 

 into the cavities of woodpeckers and into the pocket- 

 like nest of the oriole, and clutches and brings forth 

 the birds in its talons. In one case which I heard 

 of, a screech owl had thrust its claw into a cavity 

 in a tree, and grasped the head of a red-headed 

 woodpecker; being apparently unable to draw its 

 prey forth, it had thrust its own round head into 

 the hole, and in some way became fixed there, and 

 had thus died with the woodpecker in its talons. 



