Familiar Studies of Wild Birds 



photographing the young, the old owls hooted 

 their chagrin and anger from near hy. Grow- 

 ing quickly bolder, they presently flew into 

 trees closer at hand to observe what was going 

 on at their nest, sometimes perching low down, 

 sometimes in the very tiptop of the neighbor- 

 ing pines. Their long doleful hooting, inter- 

 spersed with subdued cries or an occasional 

 grunt, was accompanied by the ruffling of 

 their feathers and the snapping of beaks, for 

 this is their way of showing anger. When 

 hooting they looked straight ahead, apparently 

 giving their entire attention to the operation, 

 and their white chin patches seemed to expand, 

 presenting a very peculiar appearance. 



I was placing my subjects for a last picture, 

 when suddenly prompted to look up, I beheld 

 one of the old birds only a few yards off sail- 

 ing dii-ectly toward me. But instead of at- 

 tacking me as it probably fii-st intended, it 

 alighted on a limb within a distance of six feet. 



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