Prominent among the birds that mob the barn-owl when he flies forth
by day are jays and blackbirds. They are the noisiest, and to the
gamekeeper the most useful of all the sentinels of the wood. A sudden
hubbub from blackbirds and jays always has a meaning. If the birds are
flying high it is a sign that the barn-owl is on the move--if low, the
gamekeeper's thoughts fly to a poaching cat. A cat can hardly move a
yard in a wood without a blackbird crying the alarm. His excited notes,
suggesting the sound of the words "Flint, flint," are taken up by all
the blackbirds within call, and soon the cat is besieged by a throng,
and so closely that the keeper can follow pussy's direction, though she
remains unseen. And the blackbirds give warning of the movements of
stoats and weasels. The wren, too, is a lively and vigilant sentinel,
and from its movements one may determine within a yard where the stoat
is lurking. Jays, by their screams, give prompt warning that a fox is
on the prowl, and no human trespasser, in pursuit of game or otherwise,
can hope to escape their attentions. A lively reception awaits the fox
moving in a wood by day, and his progress may be marked through the
length of a big covert by the agitated way in which the cock pheasants
mount the trees, with warning "cock-up." In the open the peewits will
gather to swoop and swerve in anger and defiance above the fox's head.
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