THE OOLOGIST. 



185 



ly to one humlred miles north of Or- 

 leans County, and for all I know tliey 

 Inay range much farther north. In the 

 A. O. U. 1886 catalogue they give it as 

 ' 'Eastern U. S. and southern Canada, 

 \vest to the Plains." In Coues' Key he 

 says "Eastern U. S. and British Prov- 

 inces, N. to Canada, Minn, and Dako- 

 ta." 



Samuel in his Birds of New England 

 says that 'it begin.s to grow scarce in 

 northern Ma.ss.; and, before we have 

 pas.sed twenty miles beyond its north- 

 ern limits, it is very rarely seen." But 

 Samuels' is wi'ong for the birds are by 

 no means scai'ce one hundred miles 

 north of Mass. In Gentrj''s superb 

 work, "Nests and Eggs of Birds of the 

 tJnited States," he speaks of the Tow- 

 hee as reaching the Selkirk Settlement 

 on the north-west, and quotes Wilson 

 as giving it as a bird of Maine and New 

 Hampshire. In the Natural History of 

 New York by De Kay, 1843, he says, 'it 

 extends its migration north to Labra- 

 dor." In North Amei'ican Birds, by 

 Baird, Brewer and Ritlgway, they give 

 it as reaching the Selkirk Settlement on 

 the north-west, and quote Verrill, as 

 giving it as a summer resident and 

 lireeder in western Maine. 



Perhaps some of our collectors fur- 

 ther north can give us more light on 

 the sul)ject. Will add that in California 

 and Ai-izona I have taken many Oregon, 

 SfHirred, Brown, Aberts and (Jreen- 

 tailed Towhees along river Vjottomsand 

 among willow thicket.'^ — ))laces ncner 

 frequented i»y our own l)ird in this sec' 

 tion. 



Owls as Pets. 



In the spring of '8!» I cauglit two 

 ^voung white owls, those I kept until 

 fall; it was amusing to watch their an- 

 tics; they wouhl eat young ))irds or 

 mice whenever I could catch them. 



Once when an enterjjrising 't 



starteil to burrow tlirough their cage 

 Ihev had an e.xtra ilisli. 



One of our neighbors had tliree mal* 

 tese kitten.s — tliey were the prize of the 

 neighborhood, but one of tliem came 

 too near the slats and one of the owls 

 caught him and pulled him through; 

 that ended the kitten experience. 



After living in captivity four months 

 one of the owls died; as the other seem- 

 ed lonely I stuffed him. 



This spring I caught another of the 

 same kind; he is about ten inches high 

 and is in a healthy condition; he will 

 eat all I give him and yet seems to be 

 always hungry. 



Every moi'ning he takes his l)ath and 

 then rolls in the dust of his cage; his 

 favorite food is young rabbits which the 

 boys around town bring in to see him 

 eat; his cry is a hissing noise Avhich he 

 utters with his mouth at full stretch, 

 but when he is mad he utters a sound 

 like the snapping of lingers or cluck- 

 ing. 



He sometimes hops around in his 

 cage in a dancing motion, whether he 

 does this for exercise or to scratch up 

 the dust to roll in I do not know. 



Though owls may seem very tame I 

 would advise one never to trust them, 

 for in my ex])erience they like nothing 

 better than to tear one's hand open. 

 V. B. Allee, 

 Paola, Kan. 



Michigan Notes- 



May 10th — Took a .set of live Chicka- 

 dee's eggs from a nest situated in a hol- 

 low i)ost. The eggs were fresh. This 

 is the first nest of this bird that I ever 

 found around here. 



May 24th— Yellow-billed Cuckoo, set 

 of three fresh eggs, nest in an ironwood 

 tree about twenty feet up, also took two 

 sets three and four Brown Thrashers, 

 three Wood Thrushes, four Wilson's 

 Thrushes and three 01ive-l)acked 

 Thrushes. 



May 25th— While egging in aswaini)y 

 ))iece of land near Detroit I found a iie.st 



