THE OOLOGIST 



57 



THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 



Well, dad, I guess Jones will have 

 to kill his team. While he was plough- 

 ing with them this morning they bit 

 off quite a little of his corn. 



^'ou ask the reason lor Mr. Jones' 

 shooting his horses? Oh, it's a matter 

 of living up to his principles. Yester- 

 day he shot a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 

 After the bird had bugged his potato 

 patch, he found it stealing a berry or 

 two. 



There are any number of Jones' 

 in the world, who, because of lack of 

 insight rather than of principle, de- 

 stroy every bird that happens lo take 

 its rightful share of tribute. They 

 forget the law of the ancients which 

 forbade a muzzle on the oxen when 

 plowing. One of the innocent victims 

 of such persons is the Short-eared 

 Owl. It belongs to the chiefly bene- 

 ficial class, according to the Bureau 

 of Biological Survey. Seventy-five 

 per cent of its food consists of mice. 

 In addition to these it eats gophers, 

 shrews, rabbits, grasshoppers, crickets 

 and beetles. 



The Short-eared Owl is the bird of 

 the open country and seldom is seen 

 in a tree. It quite frequently hunts 

 by day, especially in cloudy weather. 

 Often at midday it flies about over 

 the fields and meadows searching for 

 rodents and grasshoppers. Its flight 

 is practically noiseless and its wing 

 expanse gives the impression of much 

 greater size. Its body measures a lit- 

 tle more than fifteen inches. 



In a way it is a bluffer. When cap- 

 tured it elevates its ear tufts or horns 

 and hisses, but goes no further. At 

 times of excitement a ring of white 

 feathers about the face becomes no- 

 ticeable. At breeding time it deposits 

 five to eight white eggs, on the ground, 

 usually beside a bunch of grass. 



Its diurnal habits, along with a 



hawk-like appearance, cause many a 



Jones to shoot it; consequently a 



goodly number of them are destroyed. 



Ralph Handsaker, 



Colo, Iowa. 



2,C00 BIRDS FOR PRINCETON. 



Collection, Gift of Alumnus, Once 

 Owned by Ambler Man. 



Princeton, N. J., Dec. 8. — (Special.) 

 — A valuable collection of 2,000 birds 

 has been presented to Princeton Uni- 

 versity, for museum purposes, by A. 

 Pardee. Mr. Pardee was graduated 

 from Princeton in the class of 1897. 



Mr. Pardee purchased the collection 

 from T. S. Gillin, of Ambler, Pa. The 

 gift includes not only mounted birds, 

 but also a large number of skins. 

 There is a group of birds which in- 

 habit eastern North America, while 

 other specimens are from Cuba, Trini- 

 dad, and the Western States of North 

 America. 



One of the finest specimens is an 

 adult male Passenger Pigeon, a bird 

 which is now extinct. The collection 

 includes about 40 skins of mammals, 

 and about the same number of mount- 

 ed specimens of mammals. 



From the Philadelphia Evening Bul- 

 letin, of Friday, Dec. 8, 1922. 



Philip Laurent, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 



We are informed by O. S. Biggs, of 

 San Jose, Illinois, that one of these 

 birds was killed March 25th, 1901, at 

 Oakford, Illinois, and was mounted 

 by him and is still in existence. Owing 

 to the lateness of the date, we thought 

 this capture worthy of record. 



R. M. Barnes. 



