172 Ways of Wood Folk. 



he surely would have heard me long before I could 

 get near enough to see what he was doing ; for his 

 eyes and ears are wonderfully keen. 



In his southern visits, or perhaps on the ice fields 

 of the Arctic ocean, he has discovered a more novel 

 way of procuring his food than digging for it. He 

 has turned fisherman and learned to fish. Once only 

 have I seen him get his dinner in this way. It was 

 on the north shore of Nantucket, one day in the win- 

 ter of 1890-91, when the remarkable flight of white 

 owls came down from the north. The chord of the 

 bay was full of floating ice, and swimming about the 

 shoals were thousands of coots. While watching 

 the latter through my field-glass, I noticed a snowy 

 owl standing up still and straight on the edge of a 

 bis ice cake. " Now what is that fellow doinfr there } " 

 I thought. — "I know! He is trying to drift down 

 close to that flock of coots before they see him." 



That was interesting ; so I sat down on a rock to 

 watch. Whenever I took my eyes from him a moment, 

 it was difficult to find him again, so perfectly did his 

 plumage blend with the white ice upon which he stood 

 motionless. 



But he was not after the coots. I saw him lean 

 forward suddenly and plunge a foot into the water. 

 Then, when he hopped back from the edge, and 

 appeared to be eating something, it dawned upon me 



