3H 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tree. Fr< >m the first hour that he was imprisoned he has shown an 

 irritable temper. His whining as a young bird was incessant by 

 day and not always suspended by night. Now, at the age of nine 

 months, lie whines whenever any one approaches him, and fre- 

 quently makes violent assaults upon me when I enter the part of 

 my cellar in which the owls are penned. Puffy and Fluffy dur- 

 ing their first summer were quite timid, and Fluffy is an arrant 

 coward now ; but Prince Edward, as the new captive has been 

 named, has never shown fear of anything living or dead, large or 

 small. 



Of two fully grown screech-owls which I owned, one in the 

 spring of 1890, the other in the spring of 1891, little is to be said. 



Great-horned. 



Prince Edward. 



Puffy. 



Sxowdok. 



Fluffy. 



They were unhappy, and, although they ate well, both died from 

 the effects of pounding their heads against wire netting in efforts 

 to escape. These owls, when approached, stiffen their ears, make 

 their feathers lie closely against their bodies, keep every joint and 

 muscle rigid, and so nearly close their eyes that only an expres- 

 sionless slit remains through which they watch the intruder. To 

 the gentle caress of a hand they pay no heed. I have often taken 

 one of them in my hand, laid him upon his back, and so carried 

 him from room to room, and not been able to detect the movement 

 of a feather. Let, however, the intruder retire, or let him take a 

 dead mouse from his pocket and draw it by a string across the 



