Identifier: birdlore111909nati (find matches)
Title: Bird lore
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: National Committee of the Audubon Societies of America National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals National Audubon Society
Subjects: Birds Birds Ornithology
Publisher: New York City : Macmillan Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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g made all necessaryarrangements as to focus, etc., I placed mv mouth at another knot-hole and gaveutterance to the call of the Barred Owl. Within a moment or two the expectedresponse came from a neighboring wood, and very shortly the usual throng ofCrows had gathered at the part of the woods nearest to the tree in which I wasconcealed. From tliis ))oint, however, the birds hesitated to make an advanceinto the open, either because their suspicions were aroused, or because they werenot accustomed to find Owls so far from dense cover. For some time, therefore,ihey circlefl overhead in winged reconnaisance, imtil one of the birds actuallv (4) The Feud of the Crows and the Owl 5 saw the mounted Owl in the tree below. Caution was at once abandoned and,uttering the battle-cry of his kind, he, with his fellows, advanced to the attack. Adozen or more of the birds took up positions in or near the tree in which the Owlsat socalmly, and screamed their notes of defiance almost in his unresponsive
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WAITING FOR THE CROWS face. But in spite of the fact that the dummy bird showed no signs of resentmentor of attempt at defence, there appeared now to be considerable hesitation on thepart of the Crows as to which one should actually strike the first blow. So far asvoice alone was concerned, each one seemed to do his best to call louder thanhis fellow, and one could readily imagine that each bird was urging his neighborto open the campaign. This continued for some time until finally one of the Crows mustered sufti-cient courage actually to strike the Owl, and it was exceedingly interesting to 6 Bird - Lore observe that the fraud was apparently detected in a moment. The calls of theCrows changed rapidly and, in an instant, every bird left the vicinity, and, cawingloudlv, returned to the woods; nor did I succeed, in spite of the most alluringhoots, in inducing them to return to the attack. A comparison of the action of these birds with those of Blue Jays under notdissimilar circumstances

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