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alarm. The long-eared owl commonly is a close sitter. When 

 one has discovered an occupied nest, the chances of watching 

 the occupant from a blind depend on conditions, but while the 

 young are growing the parents are continually^ going and com- 

 ing. At such times owls may be seen on the afternoons of 

 cloudy or stormy days. 



In severe winter weather screech owls sometimes enter barns, 

 where they kill mice or doves. They nest in April, often in an 

 old, hollow orchard tree. You may sometimes find a screech 

 owl sitting on a limb in daylight or at dusk. If the jays or the 

 smaller birds find it, they will tell you where to look. Jays 

 * seem to delight in mobbing a screech owl, and telling every- 

 bodv all about it. 



The busy jays. 



The best time to observe the hawks in flight is in September, 

 when they are on their southward migration. A great flight 

 usually goes over near the middle of the month; then one 

 must watch the sky. 



Bird Ventriloquists. 



The bird seeker must learn to notice every sound 'and move- 

 ment in the woods and fields. He must try to follow every 

 strange note to its source. The expert usually hears a bird 

 before he sees it. Some birds are ventriloquists; when the 

 bird is hidden by the leaves, the song seems to come first from 

 one tree and then from another. For this reason the scarlet 



