188 OUR BACKDOOR NEIGHBORS 



wheeled about overhead. The fourth time he 

 flew directly to a nearby tree and called, "Caw, 

 caw, caw," rather slowly. Upon receiving his 

 answer he detected the deception, and flew 

 away as rapidly as possible, paying no further 

 attention to the calls. There was so much fun 

 in watching the birds trying to find the lost 

 member of their tribe, that the Naturalist re- 

 peated the experiment at intervals during the 

 morning with similar results. Some birds 

 would solve the mystery sooner than others, 

 but he was able to deceive a considerable num- 

 ber of them. 



After learning to imitate their calls, the 

 Naturalist took keen delight in trying to ascer- 

 tain the meaning of their various notes. On 

 one occasion a pair of crows located a horned 

 owl near their nest. Upon giving the alarm 

 there were soon nineteen crows tormenting one 

 poor owl. They drove him from tree to tree, 

 all the time cawing in the most distressing 

 manner, until the bird seemed fairly dis- 

 traught. For a long time after that occasion 

 the Naturalist enjoyed hiding and repeating 

 the alarm signal which he had heard given at 

 that time. Soon crows would be coming from 

 every direction and looking for the owl, or 



