Juno, 1889.] 



a:n^d oologist. 



91 



when wliat should I see but a Great Horned 

 Owl sitting on the root of a tree. I had my dog 

 working a little to the left of me and this at- 

 tracted the owl's attention. Now, I thought, 

 this was a good oppoitunity of catching it alive, 

 but how to manage it I did not know, but came 

 to the conclusion that I would have to catch it 

 with my hands. So with my gun ready if it 

 should fly, I walked up towards it very quietly, 

 expecting every minute it would hear me, but as 

 luck had it I got within reaching distance and 

 made a grab for it, but instead of getting hold 

 of both legs as I intended, I only got hold of 

 one. I knew now that I either had to hold to 

 it and get a sore hand, or let it go and shoot it. 

 So I held on to it, and before I could catch 

 its other leg, it had me by the back of my 

 hand, sinking its talons deeply into the flesh. 

 I thought of a great many things just then, 

 and you can imagine how I felt till I was re- 

 leased from its awful grip. After working 

 awhile I succeeded in getting its claws loose. 

 I then tied a handkerchief around its legs, and 

 started for home. I got Mr. Owl home safe, 

 but had a sore hand for awhile. I still have 

 the owl alive, and it affords me a great deal of 

 amusement. C. E. Bixler. 



Madisonburg, Ohio. 



Pumpkin Rock and its Summer 

 Residents. 



It was my good fortune to have the chance 

 of visiting a breeding place of the Wilson and 

 Arctic Tern and Leach's Petrel, during the 

 past summer, and it was July 9, 1888, that I, 

 in company with three friends, rowed a 16-foot 

 dory three or four miles, from an island we 

 were camping on, to Pumpkin, as it is called 

 by the lisheimen. 



This island is the end of a chain that puts 

 out from the mainland about eight miles into 

 the ocean, and is a number of miles east of 

 the mouth of the Kennebec river on the coast 

 of Maine. The southern and outer end of the 

 island rises rather sharply to a height of at 

 least forty feet above sea level, and is a solid 

 mass of whitish quartz rock, sloping to the 

 north till it ends in low lying reefs that are 

 covered by the water at high tide. It is not 

 over two acres in extent, including sides. 

 Part of the northern slope is covered by a thin 

 turf, with here and there small clumps of the 

 low bushes commonly found on the seashore. 



When we first landed, there were but few 

 birds to be seen, but we did not have to go far 



before they commenced to rise until the air 

 was literally alive with the terns. They rise 

 up hundreds of feet and then dart down to 

 within a few inches of our heads, swinging 

 around here and there so thick and fast that 

 it is almost impossible to follow one with the 

 eye, and all the time keeping up such a chat- 

 tering that one can hai-dly hear himself talk. 

 Their cry is beyond description on paper. 



We found their nests in all places imaginable; 

 some on small hammocks with a matting of 

 grass for a nest, others on the bare rocks that 

 feel quite warm to the touch, and they were 

 also in slight depressions amongst the drift 

 stuff and sand, in a small cove wliere it had 

 been thrown up by the last full tides. There 

 were one, two, and three eggs in a nest, mostly 

 twos, and they were in all stages of incubation, 

 as we found on blowing a few sets. One young 

 one was found which was apparently not over 

 one day old. The identification of the eggs 

 could not be positive without some means of 

 trapping the bird on the nest which we did 

 not have. 



We found the burrows of the Leach's Petrel 

 without any difficulty; they were generally 

 near small clumps of bushes and twisted 

 around amongst the roots, often being three 

 or four feet long, though most of the time 

 only just under the sod. We dug out a num- 

 ber, and in each case found the bird and one 

 egg at the end of the burrow where it was 

 hollowed out to a considerable extent. The 

 dirt in these nests was perfectly dry, and in 

 some cases there were a few feathers and 

 small fish bones such as would be left by a 

 sitting bii"d. The birds would bite some when 

 putting the hand in, which would be the only 

 demonstration they made, with the exception 

 that some of them would squirt from their 

 mouth a half tea-spoonful of oil which had a 

 very rank smell. After letting them go they 

 immediately took off and did not appear again. 



The fishermen say the males are never seen 

 near the breeding place. A few days after we 

 had a chance to see where they kept them- 

 selves. While sailing several miles out at sea, 

 we ran on to a very large flock of Petrels 

 sitting in the water, only getting up as we 

 came too near. They shifted along a little 

 way and then settled down again; there was 

 only a light breeze and we had a fine chance 

 to watch them. One thing in particular which 

 attracted our attention was seeing them rise 

 up and run on top of the water with closed 

 wings, often as far as five or six feet, some- 

 thing I have never seen any account of. By 



