THE OOLOGIST. 



55 



posing pair. The larger one is the 

 female. 



About this time some duck hunters 

 were in camp on Long Pond, Lake- 

 ville, Mass., near this locality. They 

 had live decoys out. Early one cold 

 morning, a member of the camp no- 

 ticed a white object among the ducks. 

 He could not make out just what it 

 was but he saw that it was alive. 

 He brought his rifle to bear and hit 

 the mark. He then went to the ob- 

 ject in a boat and saw that it was a 

 fine female Snowy Owl, with her tal- 

 ons fixed in the back of the unfortun- 

 ate decoy. A friend now has the owl 

 in his collection of skins. 



A. K. Fisher, an authority, says the 

 economic value of the Snowy Owl is 

 limited, as it seldom comes to points 

 where agriculture flourishes. These 

 owls eat many small mammals, oc- 

 casionally a rabbit or game bird and 

 a few small birds and some fish, etc. 

 They are said to be quite expert 

 anglers, watching motionless on a 

 rock perhaps until a fish approaches, 

 then make a lightning-like stroke with 

 one foot. They are also swift, almost 

 noiseless flyers, being able to over- 

 take ducks, pigeons, grouse and even 

 hawks, it is said. 



Summarily, the Snowy Owl is a 

 noble bird, given savage ways by the 

 Creator, but gentle in confinement 

 among friends and certainly a strik- 

 ing object when a part of Boreal land- 

 scape. 



[As this seems to be a Snowy Owl 

 number, we are giving a half-tone of 

 Mr. Phillip's pair on another page. 

 They admirably illustrate the two sex- 

 ual characteristics the Editor has 

 noted to be almost, if not absolutely, 

 invariable, the males smallest and 

 whitest; the females, larger and more 

 heavily barred with black. These 

 conclusions are, of course, confined to 

 winter dress. — Ed.] 



A Remarkable Mistake. 



Ever since I have been interested 

 in the wide field of ornithology, I 

 have often deceived birds by replac- 

 ing one or more of their eggs with 

 eggs of another species, without the 

 owners detecting the difference, but 

 kept right on with their domestic af- 

 fairs. In that way, a Song Spar- 

 row can be made foster parent to 

 a Swamp, White-throated or Savanna 

 Sparrow, or even a Junco nestling, 

 without any harm to either parties 

 concerned. Of course, there are some 

 species that will not allow the least 

 meddling with their sets and again 

 some individuals are far more sen- 

 sitive than others of the same spe- 

 cies. 



In the mentioned attempts I once 

 met with a remarkable, almost impos- 

 sible result; to portray the details of 

 this astonishing mistake shall be the 

 subject of this article. It was in the 

 season of 1902. I was at that time 

 posted in a thinly settled district of 

 Northern Wisconsin. It was here that 

 when walking in a deep-trodden trail, 

 the 27th of May, I noticed a Grouse, 

 Bonasa Umbellus, sitting on her nest, 

 only four feet from me. I approach- 

 ed until within two feet of her, when, 

 with a whirl of wings, off she sailed, 

 describing the characteristic curve, 

 far into the woods. 



By the way, the nest was the most 

 exposed one of this species that I 

 had before or since seen. It was 

 placed between the roots of a live 

 hemlock that grew on a knoll in high 

 timber. There was no bush or low 

 vegetation of any kind to hide the 

 nest from plain sight. It was com- 

 posed of dry leaves, a few grass 

 spears and several feathers. It con- 

 tained seven plain buff eggs, which 

 were slightly incubated. Just then 

 a friend wanted to exchange for a 

 set of Grouse, so I decided to collect 



