BARRED OWLS IN CAPTIVITY. 123 



The numerous catbirds and occasional thrash- 

 ers were coarsely abusive. Through it all Puffy 

 made no remarks, and seldom stirred ; he found 

 out long ago that he could not catch birds. 



The ubiquitous red-eyed vireo never wearied 

 of staring at Puffy, and firing at him his sus- 

 picious, expostulating " cree ! " By roadside 

 and meadow, upland pasture, and in the deeps 

 of the beeches, the red-eye was always present. 

 Even in the haunts of the j uncos and white- 

 throated sparrows on the high ledges of Cho- 

 corua he was not absent. My count of birds in 

 July showed him to be inferior in numbers only 

 to the barn swallow, the cedar-bird, and the 

 robin. Far less numerous, but a leader among 

 the haters of the owl, was the blue-headed 

 vireo. I had seen little of the bird in previous 

 seasons, but Puffy seemed to draw one or more 

 of them from every considerable area visited. 

 Their scolding reminded me of an angry June- 

 bug in a bottle. 



As a rule the sparrows cared little for the 

 owl. Purple finches would come and look him 

 over, the female making a sweet little note of 

 inquisitive protest, and then go away. Gold- 

 finches did about the same, showing no anger. 

 Grass finches sat about on boulders and said 

 little, and their friends, the field sparrows, be- 

 haved similarly. In large swamps one or two 



