THE DEAD TREE'S DAY . 
Ill 
calling wildly, and brought to their aid, first a 
kingbird, which promptly attacked the hawk 
from above, and then a flock of blue jays, which 
abused him from cover below. When the king¬ 
bird flew away, as he did after driving the 
hawk into the bushes for a few moments, the 
jays grew more and more daring in approaching 
the hawk. In fact they set themselves to the 
task of tiring him out and making him ridicu¬ 
lous. They ran great risks in doing it, fre¬ 
quently flying almost into the hawk’s face; but 
they persevered, in spite of his ferocious at¬ 
tempts to strike them. After nearly an hour 
the hawk grew weary and edged off to the woods. 
Then the jays went up the tree as though it 
were a circular staircase, and yelled the news 
of the victory to the swamp. 
As the forenoon passed slowly by, there were 
periods when the tree was empty for ten min¬ 
utes or more at a time, but generally a flicker, 
cedar-bird, olive-sided flycatcher, blue jay, 
crow, or catbird was to be seen perched in 
some part of the great skeleton. At ten o’clock 
I shifted my place to avoid the heat of the sun, 
and to keep its light behind me. My new seat 
was in the heart of a tangle of bushes, and as 
I looked through the network of their stems I 
suddenly saw a bird’s head, motionless. My 
glass aided me in recognizing the little creature 
