THE OOLOGIST 



179 



The material can be proeurred al- 

 most an.ywheie, the pitch being most 

 difficult to obtain, but it is kept by most 

 dealers in building supplies and all ship 

 cliandlers. 



The brief directions above are modi- 

 fied from similar material in Camp 

 Life and the Tricks of Trapping* by 

 Wm. H. Gibson; a book which every 

 field collector should possess. 



To build a boat as above described is 

 not merely theory, it has been practi- 

 cally demonstrated by the writer. 

 Albert B. Farnham, 

 Benning, Dist. Columbia. 



* This book can be proeurred of the Pub- 

 lishers of the OoLOGisT. and will be sent pre- 

 pain upon receipt of $1.00. 



A Fair of Bubos at Home- 



With the rapid clearing of the for- 

 ests from the smaller water-courses of 

 this section, the Great Horned Owl has 

 ceased to be abundant and in this lo- 

 cality is met with only occasionally. I 

 know of but one pair residing at pres- 

 ent in this township. Their home is 

 in a thirty-acre tract of timber border- 

 ing the shallow creek two miles west 

 of my home town, and they are so 

 harried by hunters and crows that life 

 must be a burden to them. However, 

 food is abundant, for the tract still 

 harbors squirrels and small birds in 

 numbers, and therefore I suppose Bubo 

 is content to remain a landmark of 

 happier days. 



While tramping over this wooded 

 tract last fall, I daily startled one or 

 both of these Owls from their morning 

 naps. They see well in daytime, and 

 do not appear inconvenienced by the 

 light, though their flight among the 

 trees is low and uncertain. If they 

 ax'e pui'sued, a bare limb above the 

 middle point of a large tx-ee is usually 

 selected for a new perch, and the low- 

 est point of their flight is just before 

 rising to alight in the tree. When quiet 



reigns again, they seek a new retreat, 

 either in a hollow tree or among the 

 branches of a brushy one, the latter be- 

 ing their preference. As evening 

 comes on, they leave their resting 

 places and fly forth with strong flight 

 in wide, irregidar circles, shrinking 

 from no enemy and fearlessly display- 

 ing their powerful rapacious natui'es. 



For birds that are popularly sup- 

 posed to doze during the day. these 

 Owls are remarkably wakeful and 

 wary. It was a difficult matter to sur- 

 prise either of this surviving pair of 

 Bubos, and rarely was I allowed to ap- 

 proach within shot gun range of them. 

 The moment they were flushed, a noisy 

 pack of Crows would be in hot pursuit, 

 and when the Owls alighted, the Crows 

 Avould perch on all sides of the object 

 of their disgust some occasionally fly- 

 ing quite near and making a feint at- 

 tack, to all which demonstrations the 

 Owl was supremely indifferent. Any 

 movement on the part of the Owl 

 would evoke a perfect torrent of out- 

 cries and abuse from the Crows. Fin- 

 ally, having exhausted the corvine vo- 

 cabulary of epithets and scurrility, and 

 becoming tired of deriding that which, 

 like Diogenes, would not be derided, 

 one by one the Crows would leave the 

 spot and seek less stoical victims or less 

 noisjr amusements. When I entered 

 the woods, if I failed to startle him my- 

 self, I seldom f'eiled to locate the par- 

 ticular quarters of Bubo by the noisy 

 demonstrations of the Crows. I often 

 wished that the Owl would for once 

 so far forget his bubal dignity as to 

 lose his temper and pounce upon one 

 of his tormentors, that I might witness 

 the hasty scrambling of the cowardly 

 crowd to safe quarters. But Bubo is 

 long suffering and sets us a noble ex 

 ample of patient endurance in perse- 

 cution. 



Along in January Bubo became 

 musically inclined. As the sun sank 

 behind the western knoll, at the close of 



