- call, which he uses to alarm the game. 

 That is queer hunting; but his ears account 

 ^^ookooskqos for it. 



If you separate the feathers on Kookoos- 

 koos' head, you find an enormous ear-opening 

 running from above his eye halfway round 

 his face. And the ear within is so marvel- 

 ously sensitive that it can hear the rustle of 

 a rat in the grass, or the scrape of a sparrow's 

 toes on a branch fifty feet away. So he sits 

 on his watchtower, so still that he is never 

 noticed, and as twilight comes on, when he 

 can see best, he hoots suddenly and listens. 

 The sound has a muffied quality which 

 makes it hard to locate, and it frightens 

 every bird and small animal within hearing ; 

 for all kno'vv Kookooskoos, and how fierce 

 he is. As the terrifying sound rolls out of 

 the air so near them, fur and feathers shiver 

 with fright. A rabbit stirs in his form; a 

 partridge shakes on his branch; the mink 

 stops hunting frogs at the brook ; the skunk 

 takes his nose out of the hole where he is 

 eating sarsaparilla roots. A leaf stirs, a toe 

 scrapes, and instantly Kookooskoos is there. 



