126 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



which quite worried the little wrens. They sat on a pine tree near 

 their house and scolded away at the sparrows. We tried to drive the 

 sparrows away, and finally, I believe they staid away, much to the de- 

 light of the little wrens, who staid there for the rest of the summer. 



Natalie; Mitchel, 

 Westport, Conn. 



BIRD ACCIDENTS. 



One day in summer after a hard wind, I went out under a maple tree 

 and there found an old bird's nest of the year before, blown to the 

 ground, and in stooping to pick it up, I noticed a dead wren in it. 

 The wren had its neck so tightly entwined with a horse hair that I 

 could hardly get it loose. The wren had been dead for some time. I 

 cannot explain this accident, unless the wren had found the old nest, 

 and thought to get some of the horse hair for the purpose of lining her 

 own nest and had thus been caught. 



One day in winter while watching a flock of chickadees chasing one 

 another about the yard, I suddenly heard a loud knock upon the win- 

 dow glass and went out to ascertain the cause. There upon the ground 

 under the window, I saw a Chickadee quite dead. It had, in its play, 

 dashed against the window and instantly killed itself. No doubt it 

 had thought it was about to dart in an open space until it was too late 

 to stop in its flight. 



Percy L. Phillips, 



Belleville, 111. 



THE SCREECH OWL 



Yesterday morning when my grandfather went out to feed the hens, 

 he saw a small owl flying about as if trying to escape from the hen- 

 house. As he wanted to know what the owl was doing there and 

 thought it might be troubling the hens, he tried to catch it, but not 

 succeeding, he took a stick and killed it. 



As he had noticed that some of the hens, and especially some chick- 

 ens about two thirds grown had seemed frightened, and as their backs 

 had looked as if something had been trying to tear away the feathers, 

 my grandfather has concluded that the owl had attacked them. With 

 his wings spread out he measured twenty-two inches from tip to tip. 



Leroy B. Noble, 

 Little River, Conn. 



