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 



