(34) 



ferocious that I was compelled to put an end to him. When young' they 

 would stand on my arm and eat from my fingers, but as they grew older 

 they became so wild that I could not handle them with safety to myself, 

 and then merely threw their meat in to them to be fought over. They were 

 supplied with water all the time I had them, but I could never see that they 

 drank a drop. 



This owl is very destructive to rabbits and sqixirrels, as well as to rats 

 and other small mammals. I have frequently found parts of rabbits, squir- 

 rels and rats in their nests, and in the timber where they are found small 

 g"ame is always conspicuous by its absence. 



DISCUSSION. 



MK. w. D. HUNTEK Called attention to the peculiar distribution of Swain- 

 son's Hawk in Nebraska. Mr. Gary notes it as rare at Neligh, and Mr. 

 Carriker only as a migrant at Nebraska City, while here at Lincoln it is a 

 verj^ common summer resident. It is interesting- as an illustration of the 

 restriction of a bird whose powers of flight are remarkable, to certain local- 

 ities which are particularly to its liking. He had "often seen flocks of 

 from six hundred to a thousand passing during- migrations." 



MR. TROSTivER said that Mr. Dickinson of Gresham, Nebr., had reported 

 to him that the species had never been seen there except during migrations. 



PROF. BRUNER had frequently observed this hawk in considerable num- 

 bers in the western part of the state. Whenever there occurred a plague 

 of grasshoppers in any particular locality' there would also be found large 

 numbers of this hawk, feeding upon the insects. 



MR. J. S. hunter: "The Red-tailed Hawk seems to have quite a habit 

 of using the same nest year after year. There is one nest a few miles from 

 Ivincoln, occupied one year by a pair, the male of which was killed. The 

 next year the same female was found using the nest with another male. 

 The female was shot that season and the next year the male had another 

 mate, the nest having been used since by that pair." Certain peculiarities 

 in plumage enabled the observers to identify the individual birds. 



HOW TO POPULARIZE ORNITHOLOGY. 



MR. WILSON TOUT. 



Do we want to popularize Ornitholog}'? Can our science be made pop- 

 ular? Would the people derive any benefits from a study of the birds, and 

 would the birds gain or lose by such a course? These are the questions 

 that should be considered and answered before an attempt is made to tell 

 the how. 



Not many years ago I was a boy running- over the meadows and through 

 the groves of Central Nebraska. Here I began the study of the birds, en- 

 tirely of my own accord, as no one ever sugg-ested the subject or aided me 

 in mj' researches. I took the birds' eggs and made a small collection, 

 which, as time went on, was increased until I had a large number of the 

 eggs of our commonest forms in my collection. Unknowingly, I began to 

 systematize my work along- this line, thus laying the foundation for the 

 work in the science which was to follow. But at what a sacrifice! Collec- 

 tion after collection was destroyed bv accident or otherwise, and each time 



