The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-08
WOODLAND TRAGEDIES
The Country Rambler in the Pittsb,

| The Country Rambler in the Pittsburg | Sun.
 VXIIHILE walking through a dense A/ bit of woods beside a stream W yesterday came upon lot of feathers scattered over circle of or | 10 inches diameter Not bone nor a | drop of blood, not even the bill-nothing
 but feathers, feathers of a small bird | whose species was not disclosed thereby.
 That old log where they lay may have | been the scene of a murder. Certainly 1t was the banquet table for foul q nearly perpetrated an unpardonable pun) feast l Who was the banqueter? Was it an OWL a weasel, a mink or a skunk? Owls and serpents must be excluded because of the character of the debris A hawk would i hardly have spread his feast on such a table. Most likely mink or weasel did the work, yet there were no bones such as a weasel would ordinarily leave as tell tales. The deed was freshly done, per haps the preceding night, perhaps that very day. Some older woodsman than I, | some sylvan Sherlock, might have solved the mystery without remaining long enough to offer himself sacrifice to the bloodthrsty mosquitoes who focked
 about, but gave it up, and touching my hat by way of respect to the slain, I sought the open woods.
 On that same yesterday I witnessed a killing by some powerful birds of prey, not one, but three or four great reddish feathered fellows who were out foraging was sitting on a porch in the quaint little village of Bakerstown, where the erstwhile plank road to Butler is crossed by the old state road leading westward through Millerstown, Culmerville, Bak- erstown and on, on, on. Suddenly there was a vigorous chirping from beside the roadway, and saw these voracious har- pies fairly tearing to pieces what I took from the 1chirping to be a young chipping sparrow one of our confiding little friends of lawn and orchard. Running to the
 barred to prevent the exit of sagacious collie dog. I succeeded at last in get ting out and over to the scene of carnage in time to see valiant pair of Rhode Island Reds struggle for possession of an errant ground mole, Poor fellow, bereft of his eyesight many generations ago, all directions were one to him and with much squeaking and chirping he tried to escape his pursuers. Rescue would have pro-
 longed his agony, for he was mortally
 wounded, so watched the tragedy to the fall of the curtain, which took place, figuratively speaking. when one handsome young cockerel deftly snatched up the victim now in his last -throes, and bore
 hiri quickly and far Thus. for the first time I am led to denominate the gallus
 domesticus. or barnyard fowl. bird of prey One of the spectators said she
 had seen the same sort of an event with
 mice as the prey. N-
 Out in Bahrs woods along tie old
 Chestnut Ridge road leading from Ben
 Avon back to Perryville on one day. one
 picnic day. killed three garter snakes q
 blush to admit it). two of which contained a toad apiece, and one was sluggish and
 drowsy from having "circumvented" or
 surrounded three toads. the last, when
 brought to light. still alive. At another time I saw on the precipitous side of hill snake with one hindleg of toad in his throat. The toad was holding like grim death to the sides of little crevice between stones where he had been cap-
 tured. Imagine the thoughts of that ban