1902.
May 25
(No 4)
about the same number, as nearly as we could ascertain
by looking into the holes which entered almost directly
downward from the tops of the stubs. Both birds were
sitting to-day at about noon. We could see their tails
pressed against the sides of the stubs pointing straight
upward. As I was peeping into the first hole with my eye
almost touching its edges Seton tapped the stub with his
knuckles. The result surprised, not to say startled, us both
for the light blow was immediately followed by an explosive
poof ending in a prolonged hiss, the whole closely resembling
the sudden escape of a powerful jet of steam. My first
idea was that there was a snake in the hole and I
jumped back instinctively and precipitably. Possibly the
sound is really intended to simulate that a snake's hiss.
This bird repeated it only two or three times when we
continued to rap or scratch on the outside of the stub
but the bird in the other nest omitted it in perfect
volleys, poofing six or eight times in rapid succession
whenever we provoked her to do so. It must be
a regular habit of sitting Chickadees to thus threaten
those who disturb their nests but possibly they indulge
in it only after their young are hatched for I
cannot remember we having had an experience similar
to this before.
  There were fourteen Bats in the loft on the
shed at the farm to-day, all in one cluster
clinging to the rough surface of the boards directly
under the peak of the roof. Seton seemed to
be more interested in them than in anything else
that he saw while at Concord.
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