BIRD GUARDIANS OF THE TREES 



163 



Photograph by Cordelia J. Stan wood. 



YOUNG BROAD-WINGED HAWK 



This baby belongs to a valuable economic family, for the Hawks 

 feed on mice that destroy young trees. 



by reason of its conversational powers, as its remarks are 

 much more forcible than elegant, and it frequently car- 

 ries about in its plumage the penetrating effluvium of 

 the "woods pussy." Many skunks are slain by this dark 

 demon of the night. 



The plumage of the owl is so enveloped in fine and 

 downy filaments that its flight is noiseless. It takes 

 its victims unawares and therefore is able to overcome 

 animals much larger and heavier than itself. 



One night a farmer near Worcester, Massachusetts, 

 heard an agonized squall from a big tomcat which had 

 been promenading in front of the house in the moon- 

 light. From the open door the cat could be seen in the 

 grasp of an owl, and before the farmer could secure 

 his loaded gun and shoot the bird, poor Tom had yielded 

 up his nine lives. The powerful owl had struck him 

 noiselessly from behind and had quickly ripped out his 

 vitals. If any of his lives were left when the shotgun 

 came on the scene, that finished him. The farmer sug- 

 gested that the owl seemed to be taking that cat apart, 

 as the farm boy once took apart an alarm clock, "to see 

 how it went." 



One of my own experiences will serve to illustrate the 

 owl's noiseless approach. One autumn evening I stepped 

 out of my little camp in the Wareham woods to take some 

 exercise before bed-time. It was a clear, lovely night, 

 with a full moon riding up a cloudless sky ; not a breath 

 of air stirred the plumes of the tall white pines about me. 



which were softened and etherealized by the pale moon's 

 light. I had begun stretching and swaying the muscles 

 of my neck and torso when a loud cry, half shriek, half 

 laugh, sounded from the air within a few feet of my 

 head, followed by a jumbled inedley of strange sounds, 

 profanely expressive of astonishment and disgust, which 

 passed by me swiftly and away toward the meadow. 

 Startled, I turned to see, but nothing saw. Without a 

 sound of quill or plume a Great Horned Owl had passed 

 close by my head, and so fast it clove the air that it 

 was out of sight in the moonlight before my eye could 

 find and follow its vanishing shape. One might have 

 imagined it the disembodied voice of an evil spirit pass- 

 ing swiftly through the moonlit woods. I had been 

 wearing a white hat and the owl had been sitting in the 

 top of some tall pine. As his keen eye glanced over and 

 past the roof of my cabin, he perceived that moving 

 white object. He had swept down to strike, and had 

 discovered his mistake only when he had passed over 

 the roof and saw what was under that hat. Look before 

 you leap is a wise maxim for owls and men. Very 



Photograph by Cordelia J. Stanwood. 



A RAPID GROWER 



The same Broad-winged Hawk taken two weeks later, showing 

 how quickly the plumage grows and the bird matures. 



