xV^' OCTOBER DIARY. 357 



and the birds do not need to wander any distance from 

 the marshes. To nest on the ground would be to ex- 

 pose the eggs and young to freshets, and it probably 

 has resulted from this cause tliat hollow trees — the 

 proper home of owls — have been resorted to. Either 

 this, or the young resort, when but a few days old, to 

 the trees. While I have never found the eggs, I have 

 so frequently found the young that I have never doubt- 

 ed but that tliey were hatched in the hollows where 

 they were seen. 



" Sometimes a tame cat takes to the woods, and when 

 it does it gets wilder than a wild cat," was the remark 

 of Miles Overfield, who gave me a rambling account of 

 his having seen such a cat. It was a strange coinci- 

 dence, for to-night I crossed Poaetquissings above the 

 flood-gates, and the scream of a cat was decidedly liorri- 

 capillatory. I felt my hairless scalp to be unpleasantly 

 ridged, and the same effect was produced on the night- 

 herons near by, for they straightway ruffled their feath- 

 ers and flew into the outer darkness. I listened for its 

 repetition, yet half hopeful I should not hear it ; and I 

 was both pleased and sorry that the cat remained quiet 

 so long as I tarried by the creek-side. This cat, which I 

 know to be one that has " taken to the woods," uttered 

 this evening probably the wildest cry I have ever heard 

 in my rambles. Not so startling as that of a barn-owl, 

 perhaps, but simply because it is uttered more deliber- 

 ately. Yon have time to catch your breath ; but when 

 the barn-owl yells its w'ild kr-r-r-r-ick ! you are apt to be 

 bewildered by its abruptness. The sound was unlike 



