48 



THE YOUNG OOLOGIST. 



shape of a club. This wms hurled, and like 

 an ari'ow the startled bird left the nest, 

 made one "caw," was joined l)_v another 

 crow, probabl_y her mate, and seen no more 

 that day. One of our number immediatel}"" 

 took off his coat, vest and shoes, and was 

 soon up, where he reported to the eager 

 ^roup below " three eggs." Two of these 

 were placed in a small box, the other one 

 in his mouth, and the nest was dropped to 

 the ground, and collapsed in the operation. 

 Another of our party climbed and secured 

 the egg from the collector's mouth, when 

 all three were safely brought to the ground 

 and securely packed. I then took an ac- 

 count of the nest and wrote my data. The 

 iiest contained some queer things, among 

 which was a spider's nest, some horse hair, 

 and a bunch of cow's hair. We proceeded 

 on our journey, and although traversing 

 some ten miles of country and seeing many 

 iiests, we got no more eggs that day. 

 Wabken Carter, 



WalUnifford. Pa. 



Great Horned Owl. 



A. friend and myself started for a day's , 

 trip in the country for owls. When about ] 

 five miles from town we reached a nest 

 whicli was used by Red-tails a year ago. 

 The luiwks were back and flying over the 

 nest with shiill screams. When about five 

 hundred feel from the nest, 1 observed 

 through my field glass the tufts or horns of 

 an owl. "When some three hundred feet 

 from the place the male flew from a neigh- 

 boring tree. The female refused to leave 

 the nest, but stood up with ruffled feathers 

 until I threw a snow-ball. She" flew in the 

 ■direction which her mate had taken, the 

 .snow then at that place was knee deep. 

 After a hard climb I secured a nice set of 

 two. Incubation well advanced. Proceed- 

 ing on about two miles we came to a lie* 

 nest which was not there the summer be- 

 fore. I saw nothing of Owls, but on the 

 outside of the nest there were several Owls' 

 feathers, which induced me to climb. On 

 reaching the nest, 1 found one frozen egg, 

 which proved to be that of a Great Horned 



Owl. The nest had been deserted. Re- 

 turning home a different route, we found a 

 pair of Red-tails Inisily engaged in build- 

 ing their ue.st, which was nearly complete. 

 A few years ago a pair of these Owls 

 built a nest directly over a large den of 

 rattlesnakes. The snakes soon disap- 

 peared. I have known Red-tailed Hawks 

 to kill snakes also. It looks to me that if 

 it was not for the.se two species we would 

 be overrun with snakes and gophers. Per- 

 haps some of the readers can throw some 



light on this sub !ect. 



Frank A. Patton. 

 Lake City, Minn. 



■White Blue Bird Eggs. 



Editor Young OnlogisI : 



As I see occasionally in your paper some 

 items about Blue-birds' eggs being found 

 found white instead of their natural color, 

 I would like to ask whether this is a dis- 

 tinct kind of Blue-l)irds or not. There 

 has been found here four sets of the Blue- 

 birds' eggs. Three of the nests were found 

 nearly at the same time, so I am sure that 

 there are four pairs of the birds here that 

 lay white eggs, if not more. Hoping to 

 hear from you soon in regard to this. I re- 

 main Yours Resp't. 



R. J. R.. El Paso, III. 



The Bluebird that lays while eggs is not 

 a difEerent variety. Ed. 



A Hard Time for Owls 



During the past winter I have skinned 

 and mounted seventy-one Owls of different 

 species. They were as follows : 



Great-horned Owls 7 



Barred Owls 18 



Hawk Owls 41 



Long-eared Owls 2 



Little-horned Owl, (.Mottled) 1 



Flaminulated Screech Owl 1 



Richardson's Saw-whet Owl 1 



I handled many other Barred and Hawk 

 Owls which I should have liked to add to 

 mv list. .T. JI.. Quebec. Canada. 



