WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



yard and carry off his chickens ; while the nocturnal 

 habits of most of the smaller mammals not hibernat- 

 ing in January lead them abroad when the owls 

 are mostly flying, and on moonlight nights these 

 prowlers get many a good meal, no doubt. 



It would seem, therefore, as if the chances of 

 death presented to the lesser winter birds by scarcity 

 of food, rigor of climate, hawks by day and owls 

 by night, outnumbered the chances of life offered 

 by their alertness and enduring vitality. But 

 there are some additional circumstances favorable 

 to their escape from the latter fate, their resources 

 against starvation and freezing having already 

 been explained. One of these circumstances is 

 the vigilance of the birds : they never are forgetful. 

 Sometimes their curiosity leads them into danger, 

 or an enemy like man, which they do not suspect, 

 may approach them by being very quiet; but a 

 hawk could never insinuate himself into a spar- 

 row's good graces, nor could an owl win his con- 

 fidence ; both must trust to surprising him or over- 

 taking him in an open race, which is about as 

 difficult as "catching a weasel asleep." Then the 

 hiding-places of the birds in hollow trees, crannies 

 in walls, dense thickets, and brush-piles, during 

 the night and in bad weather, are such as afford 



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