136 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



particular about a small matter of theft and murder ; 

 for some night he will appear before the oriole's 

 home when the family is asleep, and if the nest in 

 the pear tree is shallow he will claw out the young 

 ones and devour them at his leisure one by one. Not 

 even the mother bird may escape his murderous 

 attack. The pendulous nest of the oriole is compara- 

 tively safe in either the elm or the maple, because on 

 both these trees the leaves are large and abundant ; 

 but in spring the orchard trees with their thin foliage 

 are bad homes for birds and good hunting grounds 

 for owls. However, the chief food of this owl is 

 mice and insects ; he does not often dine on young 

 orioles. 



The screech owl is common North and South. 

 He flits at dusk along the roads which wind through 

 the mountains of northern New Hampshire, and he 

 resorts to the unfrequented byways of New Jersey ; 

 in fact, he is a bird quite at home on the dark and 

 lonely road, where he can undisturbed plan his mis- 

 chievous plots — robber that he is ! I have met him 

 in the far North on the shaded road which ap- 

 proaches the Dixville Notch, N. H., and on a lonely 

 byway leading through the scrubby pines of Mon- 

 mouth County, N. J. 



