The Way of the Wild

He only knew that the neutrality of his kingdom was broken. Some one was fighting over his borders; and when fighting once begi

h, half-way up, and apparently they kept there, and did not fall, through a special dispensation of Providence. Both fought like ten devils, and

wo blue titmice had just arrived to see what was up, and a sparrow and one great tit were hurrying to the spot-all on Blackie's

e second thrush fetched up on a lower branch, and by the time the first had ceased to see stars he had apparently regained his sanity. He beheld Blackie above

p in the night. Blackie presented him with a dig gratis from his orange dagger, and he nearly fell in fluttering to another branch. And Blac

edifice, interlined with rigid cement of mud, which we, in an off-hand manner, simply dismiss as "A nest." The young were his children; they might have been white-feathered angels

lawn. (Jet and orange against

r the ghost of one; yet that bird took three long, low hops, made some quick motion with his beak-I swear it never seemed to touch the ground, even, let alone dig--

agely, like a thrush. Also, again, he may or may not have used his feet. Moreover, he gave up two intervals to surveying the world against any likely or unlikely

t three yards, where instantly, he conjured another and a smaller worm out of nowhere. With this unfortunate horror he hopped back to the unnice scene of the first worm's decease, and carved that second worm up in like manner. Then he peek

Nests in hedges for other blackbirds, perhaps. He, or his wife, had different notions. Wherefore flew he away out into the grass field be

, where the sides were shored with timber, his mate had her nest. Here he delivered over his carved joints to the three ugly creatures which he knew as his children and thought t

raise the world. The sparrow-hawk's skinny yellow claw, thrust forward, was clutching thin air an inch behind his central tail-feathers, but that was all she got of him-just thin air. There was no crash as he hurled into the green maze; but she, failing to s

could be seen whirling in skirmishing order-not too close-about the retreating foe. Blackie himself needed no more sparrow-hawk for a bit, and

s on the lurk near by. Also, a quick inspection of other birds'

ly. Also, when pulled, they may come in halves. So Blackie did not pull too much. He jumped up, and, while he was in the air, scraped the worm

most to hide the method used. In a few seconds more it was a carved worm in t

not see anything that was coming. Wherefore every few seconds he had to stand erect and peer

ad, and he who commandeered it from her. Now he disclosed one fact, and that was that bread would do for his children as well as worms. Anyhow,

ere possible-used up, must feed more than usual. That seemed to be why he hid his whole load in the crook of a big bough, and, returning to the lawn, ate bread-he could wait to catch no w

by nobody, and his was a conspicuous livery, too-his children appeared to be in the last stages of exhaustion. That, however, is young birds all ov

ust as hard on her own "beat" as he had been on his-their hunting

ouse roof. Fatherlike, he thought he had done enough for a bit, and would enjoy a "sunning reaction" on the summerhouse roof. It was rather a g

etching, leg-stretching, and "preening" his feathers, and had finally left off just to sit a

hing. Nor did Blackie, but he looked very uncomfortable. She did more than say nothing. She went for him, beak first, and very angrily indee

and less trusting of the world than Blackie, and did not care for his lawn in full view of the house windows. And Blackie did n

towards the base of his beak; the big he carved up into sections, which he held more towards th

y, it was a very small owl, scarce bigger than himself; but it was an owl, and, like all its tribe, armed to the teeth. Men called it a little owl. Tha

often hunt by day. But how was Blackie to know that, little

that foe was behind by the whir of its wings. Owls' wings don't talk, as a rule; they have a patent silencer, so to speak,

. The owl came up behind, going like a cloud-shadow, and about as fast, and Blackie

ong tail. And the owl lost a foot on the turn. I think it was expecting Blackie to make for the hedge at all costs. But, be that as it may, that foot was never made up again, for Blackie van

The owl lost a f

down some time before Blackie turned up again, and then it w

as half-way there, indeed, before he saw the boys-three boys-with two rows of birds' eggs threaded on strings. They were

looking in the trench for nests. It seemed the last place in the world to find one. It may have been, moreover, that he feared that his wif

tayed. Dusk was setting in, and his young were fourteen days old. They showed it in their disobedience, and were not in the least inclined to keep as quiet as they should, co

adults of either in their frog-like attitudes and heavy ways. Frankly, they were not beautiful, even at that stage; and a

dow which was a cat. That sudden death, however, was more afraid of the open than Blackie, even, and, moreover, wasn't expecting blackbirds' nests in the middle of fields. It turned back; and

ounds in your house one-third of which were probably the noises of a burglar. Think, also, how you would feel if you knew that that burglar was a

ed to be waiting for something else to give it authority, so to speak, and at the end of ten minutes that something else came-the slim form of Blackie, streaking, phantom-like, through the mist from the trench out in the field to the summer-house in the garden. Here, mounted upon the very top, he stood for a moment, as one clearing his throat before blowing a bugle, and then, full, rich, deep, and flute-like, he lazily gave out the first bars of hi

not considered "the thing" for a blackbird with such domestic responsibilit

ht prowlers, for as soon as the gay and gaudy chaffinches had stuck themselves up in the limes and the sycam

s extraordinarily conspicuous orange dagger of a beak darting from

ce of one in a temper, scolding loudly. And he knew that scold-had heard it befo

calling him, and it came from the other side of the garden, her side, behind the house. Perhaps it was a cat, or a rat, or something. Anything, almost, would set her on like that if experience, plus the expe

means as large as a blackbird. When it flew it kept low, with a weak and peculiar flight that was deceiving; and when Mrs. Blackie,

lending official dignity to the proceedings. Whereupon his wife, feeli

in every pie-following that gray bird from nowhere, while it moved about the garden in its shuffling flight, or alternately sat and scowled

rike was her name, female was her sex, and from Africa had she come. Goodness knows where she was going, but not far, probably; and the largest thing in th

ved the b

, blundering, foolish, gawky, and squawking, landed, all

ot, and the shrike judged that the time had

One of them shot past Blackie, who was low down, a second later and a yard away, and had he not been absolutely still, and therefore as invisible a

lower hedge, and, both togethe

grown kitten, and they were upon the unhappy

al mind than his wife's, perhaps because he wore a more conspicuous livery.) Mrs. Blackie kept passing and repassing the cats' backs, flying fro

d, too, but no

rang up and struck quickly twice. There was a chain of shrieks from Mrs. Black

sity, approached a little too close, when the bevy of youngsters, being ready to fly, but not knowing it before this g

ge-two to the side which comprised their father's hunting-ground, and one to the side domi

to feed them. The task was such a large one, and took so long, and so many worms had to be cut up, and so much bread, and, I may say, when all else failed, so many daisies had to be picked

youngsters, too, in the end, I want to te