. Country life reader . he free foot and, watching his op-portunity, the ranger seized the two wings and Bubo washelpless. And what splendid wings! A full five feet, asthe ranger extended them, from tip to tip! What wonderif the wood-hare started in his form in the thicket, and thered weasel cowered low in his burrow at the sweep of theirfatal shadow on the glistening white of the snow? Strong,soft, and beautiful, but rather to the wild creatures ofthe wood the noiseless ministers of death—swift, sudden,and unerring. Before Bubo was freed from the trap, a small chain wasfastened about his leg
. Country life reader . he free foot and, watching his op-portunity, the ranger seized the two wings and Bubo washelpless. And what splendid wings! A full five feet, asthe ranger extended them, from tip to tip! What wonderif the wood-hare started in his form in the thicket, and thered weasel cowered low in his burrow at the sweep of theirfatal shadow on the glistening white of the snow? Strong,soft, and beautiful, but rather to the wild creatures ofthe wood the noiseless ministers of death—swift, sudden,and unerring. Before Bubo was freed from the trap, a small chain wasfastened about his leg with a double knot, and this wasattached to a staple in the side of a tree a few feet fromthe ground. The chain made all attempts to escape use-less, but Bubo had another artifice which he made use of,an artifice which seemed a strange one, to say the least,in so seemingly fierce a bird—the common device of theweak in feigning death. When he found that all effortsto escape were in vain, his wings relaxed, he dropped. Hoooo! Hooo! Hoo 28o COUNTRY LIFE READER head foremost to the ground and lay limp and apparentlylifeless on the grass, from which condition he refused tobe aroused until he was finally left to himself again. During the day he remained undisturbed, except for avisit from a party of blue-jays. When they discoveredhim they came down in a company, and perched in a ringin the trees round about him, screeching and screamingtheir maledictions on his head. In the midst of this ringof enemies sat Bubo, staring, and blinking, and hissing,the horn-tufts bent down in token of vexation, and verywisely turning his head in all directions to guard againstthe expected persecution. But in the course of time, hav-ing vented their indignation on their enemys head, theyscreamed hoarsely away and scattered once more to thedistant quarters of the wood. Twilight fell at last. A chickadee lisped a *dee, dee,dee among the tree tops, and the evening melody ofthe wood-robin came up serene
Size: 1328px × 1882px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyorkchicagoetcc
