The Lay of the Band 
dent; and such accidents are extremely rare, as will 
be seen from a statement by Mr. Burroughs in which 
he says he has come upon but three hummingbirds’ 
nests in all his life! He has doubtless found many 
more than three owls’ nests, but perhaps not one 
of such finds was an accident. He hunted for the 
owls. 
Night after night, in the sweet silence through 
which our little river sings, we hear the whimpering 
of the small screech owls. They are beating for mice 
and frogs over the meadow. So much we get without 
watching ; but the sight of them and their nest, that 
came only with my visiting every tree in the neigh- 
borhood having a cavity big enough to hold the birds. 
At twilight, in the late spring and early summer, 
we frequently hear a gentle, tremulous call from the 
woods, or from below in the orchard. “ What is it?” 
Thad been asked a hundred times, and as many times 
had answered that it sounded like the hen partridge 
clucking to her brood; or that it made me think 
of the mate-call of a coon; or that I half inclined to 
believe it the cry of the woodchucks; or that pos- 
sibly it might be made by the owls. In fact, I didn’t 
know the peculiar call, and year after year I kept 
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