PANIC IN THE BIRD WORLD. 39 



perching like his bigger fellows, and adding his 

 excited cries to the notes of catbird and robin, 

 chewink and yellow-bird. Attracted one morn- 

 ing by a great bird outcry in a dense young oak 

 grove across the road, I left my seat under the 

 cottonwoods and strolled over toward it. It was 

 plain that some tragedy was in the air, for the 

 winged world was in a panic. Two robins, the 

 only pair in the neighborhood, uttered their cry 

 of distress from the top of the tallest tree; a 

 catbird hopped from branch to branch, flirting 

 his tail and mewing in agitation ; a chewink or 

 two near the ground jerked themselves about 

 uneasily, adding their strange, husky call to the 

 hubbub ; and above the din rose the shrill voice 

 of a humming-bird. Every individual had his 

 eyes fixed upon the ground, where it was evi- 

 dent that some monster must be lurking. I 

 expected a big snake at the very least, and, put- 

 ting the lower branches aside, I, too, peered into 

 the semi-twilight of the grove. 



No snake was there ; but my eyes fell upon 

 an anxious little gray face, obviously much dis- 

 turbed to find itself the centre of so much atten- 

 tion. As I appeared, this bugaboo, who had 

 caused all the excitement, recognized me as a 

 friend and ran toward me, crying piteously. It 

 was a very small lost kitten ! 



I took up the stray little beastie, and a silence 



