66 HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



Ghic-chicadeedee ! saucy note 

 Out of sound heart and merry throat, 

 As if it said, Good-day, good sir! 

 Fine afternoon, old passenger! 

 Happy to meet you in these places, 

 Where January brings few faces. 

 This poet, though he live apart, 

 Moved by his hospitable heart, 

 Sped, when I passed his sylvan fort, 

 To do the honors of his court, 

 As fits a feathered lord of land; 

 Flew near, with soft wing grazed my hand, 

 Hopped on the bough, then, darting low, 

 Prints his small impress in the snow, 

 Shows feats of his gymnastic play, 

 Head downward, clinging to the spray." 



When the smaller birds have been driven from the 

 fields and woodlands to our dwellings by the snow, the 

 birds of prey are forced to follow them ; so there is 

 scarcely a day but we see various species of hawk or 

 the day owl (Surnia Hudsonica) watching their oppor- 

 tunity for a meal. We vainly try to frighten them 

 awajr ; but hunger knows no law, and they are often 

 successful in snatching a bird within a few feet of us. 



The owl, S. Hudsonica, is less timid and much more 

 persistent than the hawk in following his prey. Often 

 when I think I have frightened him from the neigh- 

 borhood he will noiselessly slip out of an evergreen, and 

 with the coolest audacity take a sparrow in my near 

 vicinity. 



Sometimes one drops down from the roof of the 



