The marten thrust his nose into it. One long sniff, while
his eyes blazed; then he raised his head, cried out once savagely, and
glided away on the back track.
IV. KOOKOOSKOOS, WHO CATCHES THE WRONG RAT.
[Illustration: Kookooskoos]
Kookooskoos is the big brown owl, the _Bubo Virginianus_, or Great
Horned Owl of the books. But his Indian name is best. Almost any night
in autumn, if you leave the town and go out towards the big woods, you
can hear him calling it, _Koo-koo-skoos, koooo, kooo_, down in the
swamp.
Kookooskoos is always catching the wrong rat. The reason is that he is
a great hunter, and thinks that every furry thing which moves must be
game; and so he is like the fool sportsman who shoots at a sound, or a
motion in the bushes, before finding out what makes it. Sometimes the
rat turns out to be a skunk, or a weasel; sometimes your pet cat; and,
once in a lifetime, it is your own fur cap, or even your head; and
then you feel the weight and the edge of Kookooskoos' claws.
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