The sound has a muffled quality which
makes it hard to locate, and it frightens every bird and small animal
within hearing; for all know Kookooskoos, and how fierce he is. As the
terrifying sound rolls out of the air so near them, fur and feathers
shiver with fright. A rabbit stirs in his form; a partridge shakes on
his branch; the mink stops hunting frogs at the brook; the skunk takes
his nose out of the hole where he is eating sarsaparilla roots. A leaf
stirs, a toe scrapes, and instantly Kookooskoos is there. His fierce
eyes glare in; his great claws drop; one grip, and it's all over. For
the very sight of him scares the little creatures so, that there is no
life left in them to cry out or to run away.
A nest which I found a few years ago shows how well this kind of
hunting succeeds. It was in a gloomy evergreen swamp, in a big tree,
some eighty feet from the ground. I found it by a pile of pellets of
hair and feathers at the foot of the tree; for the owl devours every
part of his game, and after digestion is complete, feathers, bones,
and hair are disgorged in small balls, like so many sparrow heads.
Pages:
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94