44 NEBRASKA ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION 



now under cultivation. With the passing of these basins such forms- 

 of bird life do not stay ^\dth us during the summer but are merely 

 migrants in spring and fall. So with the breaking of the prairies the 

 Burrowing Owl and Pinnated Grouse have become quite scarce in most 

 places. 



Because of the scarcity of big timber a long list of Eajitores Avould 

 not be expected. However I have records of the nesting of the Great 

 Horned Owl, Barn Owl, Screech Owl, and Barred Owl. A farmer near 

 Utica took four young barn ow^ls from a pigeon-box on his barn during 

 the latter part of the summer of 1899. He had noticed the parent birds 

 about all summer and had also noticed that his pigeons were slowly 

 disappearing. The young owls were given away, two being brought 

 to school where they were kept for several days. Thej- did not live 

 long in captivity, probably because they did not have their customary- 

 pigeon diet. I once found two eggs of the Great Horned Owl in art 

 old crow's nest and have seen the birds at various times throughout 

 the year. Five years ago I caught four young screech oys^ls and put 

 them in our barn loft. We fed them fresh meat and that was all, for 

 we could not get them to eat anything else or to drink water. They 

 grew to be full grown and finally escaped through a broken window. I 

 also had a burrowing owl in the loft at the same time but it absolutely 

 refused every kind of food and after three days' fasting tried to crawl 

 through a knot-hole and got caught. The next morning we found it 

 hanging cold and stiff. A short-eared owl was found by some girls in 

 a grove and brought to school. It had been wounded in some way and 

 could not fly. 



Of the hawks we have the Cooper's, Sharp-shinned, Eed-shouldered,. 

 Eed-tailed, Swainson's, Sparrow, and Marsh. These I know and thert 

 there are some which I do not know and some of which I am not cer- 

 tain. That is because I have no gun. In October, 1896, I took a ride 

 to a place twelve miles northwest of York and saw over a hundred 

 Swainson's hawks. They were common during the whole of the last 

 part of the month and seemed to be migrating very slowly. In 1898 

 a boy caught a turkey buzzard and gave it to his sister for a pet — of 

 course she did not keep it long. A lady showed me a sharp-shinned 

 hawk in November, 1900, which had been found dead a few days before. 



Nighthawks are most common during migration, but a few remain 

 as summer residents and breeders. In the high banks along the Blue I 

 have found the nests of the Bank Swallow and Kingfisher, neither of 

 which are very common. 



Of the shore birds I do not believe we have many breeders. The 

 Bartramian Sandpiper and Killdeer are seen throughout the summer 

 and the Least and Solitary Sandpipers during migration. The York 

 High School has a double-crested cormorant, a white pelican, an 

 avocet, and a black-crowned night heron, all of which were taken on 

 the creek near there during migration. March 30, 1896, I gave a cigar 



