THE SCREECH OWL 155 



treat and make a raid upon a shrike that was 

 impaling a shrew-mouse upon a thorn in a neigh- 

 boring tree, and which I was watching. I was 

 first advised of the owl's presence by seeing him 

 approaching swiftly on silent, level wing. The 

 shrike did not see him till the owl was almost 

 within the branches. He then dropped his game, 

 and darted back into the thick cover, uttering a 

 loud, discordant squawk, as one would say, " Scat ! 

 scat I scat! " The owl alighted, and was, perhaps, 

 looking about him for the shrike's impaled game, 

 when I drew near. On seeing me, he reversed 

 his movement precipitately, flew straight back to 

 the old tree, and alighted in the entrance to the 

 cavity. As I approached, he did not so much 

 seem to move as to diminish in size, like an object 

 dwindling in the distance ; he depressed his plum- 

 age, and, with his eye fixed upon me, began 

 slowly to back and sidle into his retreat till he 

 faded from my sight. The shrike wiped his beak 

 upon the branches, cast an eye down at me and 

 at his lost mouse, and then flew away. 



A few nights afterward, as I passed that way^ 

 I saw the little owl again sitting in his doorway, 

 waiting for the twilight to deepen, and undis- 

 turbed by the passers-by ; but when I paused to 

 observe him, he saw that he was discovered, and 

 he slunk back into his den as on the former oc-^ 



