THE OSPREY. 



G9 



lowed its food with H])-])oiscd Iie;id, but such 

 seems to l)e not the case, for my Owls iield their 

 heads downward and swallowed food upward 

 with short jerks of the head. Tliey tlirew up 

 no jiellets from eatiny meat, but pellets were 

 found from bones, hair and featliers. One 

 pellet contained several jjrain.sof whole corn 

 tiiat had been swallowed with the crop of a 

 sipiab. Thus it appears tliat corn lias no nutri- 

 ment for owls. 



The stomach of an (Jwl .seems to be almost 

 under the tail, as I a.scertained by pici<in^ up 



a hinii^'-ry owlet to feed it; the spot that had 

 been louse and llabby became tiyht as a drum 

 after the bird liad dined. When gorHed they 

 settled down with indr.iwn necks and eyes more 

 or less closed. I fed tliem only once a day, at 

 dusk, owi.n;,'' to the difliculty of handlinfj them 

 in daylight. After 3 weeks or a month they 

 learned their feedim.^ time, would begin to call, 

 and shuffle up to me when I lifted the coop. I 

 tried to jfive them water in a teaspoon, but they 

 did not relish it, and I haye kept them without 

 water. 



II.MUTS ol' YOUNG SHORT-EAK'KD OWLS. 



i!v LUDWin Kl'MI.IKN. 



ON May 2'). 1H<)8, in comiiany with Mr. Ed- 

 ward HoUister of Delavan, Wis., I found 

 a nest of this Owl in a larg'e marsh in 

 \\alw<n-th Co., Wis. It was on wet ir''"uiid 

 in tall i^-rass ;uul weeds near a willow-frinf,''ed 

 (lilc-h. ,1(1 rolls from the c>fl"-e of a marsh. The 



which, wheii dried, swelled up more than six 

 inches thick. I picked out over (jOO feathers, 

 and the followiufj;' species could be identified, 

 tlioUf,''h I did not fxo to the bottom of the mass, 

 as this was mouldy and the feathers were not 

 e.tsily identified. It is a rather b.ul showinff, 



^■V'\'>T.*^* 



YOUN(i SnOUT-KAHKD OWI.S. 



female (.') was Hushed directly uiuler foot, but 

 did not ajjain come within jfunshot: the male 

 (?) was hovering^ about the place before the 

 nest was discovered, sailing high like a Hawl 



and uttering at intervals a cry similar to that 

 of C\)oper*s Hawk. 



The ne.st contained three young, of dilTerent 

 siy.es, probably 111 to 14 days old. covered with 

 tine .soft white down. They were as carefidly 

 j)hotograi)hed as the weather would allow on a 

 cloudy, drizzling- day. The nest proper was a 

 composite mass of wing and tail feathers of 

 small birds interlaceil with wet matted grass 



and to me entirely une.xiiected, as I Iiavc alwaj'S 

 looked upon this Owl as pre-eminently a mouse 

 feeder. Baltimore Oriole, Cat Bird, Thrush, 

 Brown Thraslier, Vireo, Wren, Scarlet Tanager, 

 K'ed-winged Blackbird, Bobolink, Slirikt' (one 

 nearly entire tail) Ovenbird, Yellow Warbler, 

 Maryland Yellow-thro.it, Kedstart, Cuckoo, 

 Kinglet (2 tails), Sora Rail, Yellow Kail, Sjjotted 

 Santl])iper, Kildeer. nine or ten species of Spar- 

 rows, Dickcissel, iriiippoonvill {-At least 2); Blue- 

 bird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Meadow Lark, 

 Towhee Bunting, two species of small Klycat- 

 ers; and among' a large number of tail and wing 



