ORNITHOLOGIST 



— AND— ..--^ 



OOLOGIST. 



$1.00 per 

 Annnm. 



Joseph M. Wade, Editor and Pablisher. 

 EBtablished, March, 1875. 



Single Copy, 

 10 Cents. 



VOL. VII. 



NORWICH, CONN., OCTOBER, 1882. 



No. 21. 



American Long-eared 0^vl. 



OUR FIRST owl's NEST. 



For several seasons we worked indus- 

 triously, sparing neither shoe leather nor 

 horse flesh, in the hope of finding an owl's 

 nest, and that the first one would jirove 

 that of a Great-horned Owl. But each sea- 

 son passed away without success, and we 

 the more determined not to buy, l>ut to 

 l^ersevere until success crowned our efl'orts. 

 when in the early Spring of 1879 we re- 

 ceived a box from Portland, Conn., con- 

 taining two beautiful eggs of the Great- 

 homed Owl. a jireseut from W. W. Coe, 

 who has taken the eggs so many years in 

 succession from this pair that he now 

 jokingly alludes to them as the " Coe 

 strain." The eggs in question were so far 

 advanced in incubation that one of the 

 young ones poked his bill through the 

 shell as they lay on the table, and yet 

 through Mr. Coe's patience and persever- 

 ance a set of eggs were produced fine 

 enough to place in any cabinet. Although 

 tliis set of eggs were thankfully received, 

 it did not cure the desire to find an owl's 

 nest, and when the season of 1880 opened 

 we still persevered until April 4, when 

 passing through a hemlock grove in a de- 

 serted heronry, in the town of Ellington, 

 Ct., we discovered droppings and castings. 

 On looking up the tree a Long eared Owl 

 (Asio Americanm) left it for a short flight. 

 Without stopping to thiak, we mounted the 

 tree on a fruitless search. As soon as we 

 got down the owl returned to the next 

 tree, when our German companion got ex- 

 cited and wanted to borrow a gun: in fact. 



anything to get the owl. "We told him to 

 keep cool and we woidd go up the tree and 

 get it for him. 



"We started stealthily up the hemlock. 

 The owl kept his eye on oiu- friend 

 untU we got within two feet of it, when its 

 head came around, and he looked us in the 

 face. We moved not a muscle, but looked 

 him straight in the eye, when hearing our 

 friend step on a rotten stick, its head 

 turned once more, and taking advantage of 

 this we gently moved one branch higher, 

 and with a quick movement of the right 

 hand we took him from the limb. To say 

 that both of us were surjirised would hard- 

 ly express it. The German sent up a shout 

 of exultation in broken English. We 

 carefully descended vrith our captive, and 

 our German friend prepared to tie up the 

 owl in his handkerchief. We examined 

 it carefully, and while handing it to 

 him we pui-jsosely let it go. The owl 

 went off as noislessly as a butterfly and 

 looked at us from another tree with a per- 

 fect indifference. We left the place jileased 

 with our experience but our friend had lost 

 his owl and was not happy. 



April 11th. We again went to the her- 

 onry and saw both owls several times. 

 Climbed to several nests but found no eggs. 

 Api-il 18. Our friend went over alone 

 and found both owls on one nest. They 

 left it when he went near the tree. April 

 2.5. We again went to the heronry with 

 oiu- friend, who pointed out the tree in 

 which he had previously foimd the nest 

 containing the owls. As we strack the 

 tree one of the owls left the nest, and 

 when we had clindjed two-thirds of the 



