6 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 86 



cover from which he arose and immediately resumes the 

 call note. 



Despite the fact tliat I have been a lonesome spectator to 

 these demonstrations for years and years, they are the most 

 fascinating of bird manoeuvres. 



The sitting bird successfully suppresses all signs of ner- 

 vousness as she sits motionless upon her eggs beneath the 

 shadow of a drooping branch or broken stub. It seems impos- 

 sible to conceive that the same bird (for the male often incu- 

 bates) is capable of such an animated flight and gifted with 

 the remarkable vocal power which he utters during the 

 mating and breeding seasons. 



A TIME WITH THE OWLS. 



BY DR. R. W. SHUFELDT, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



One afternoon, sometime during the first part of .January 

 (1914), when returning from the United States National 

 Museum where I had been looking over some owls, I passed 

 up Tenth Street, only a few paces from the building in which 

 I had been, when I spied, suspended for sale in one of the 

 markets, a fine specimen of the Barred Owl {Strix v. varia). 

 It was an old bird in perfect plumage, and I secured it for a 

 quarter of a dollar. Recently they have been quite numerous 

 in this section, and this one was shot within a couple of miles 

 of where I stood when making the purchase. 



Several days passed before I could get at this specimen; 

 but when I did, I obtained from it a very perfect skeleton 

 as well as a part of the plumage. On opening its stomach — 

 a practice I never neglect — it was found to contain the 

 remains of three or four small mice. As usual, these remains 

 had formed into "pellets," principally consisting of hair and 

 bones. Some of the jaws w^ere quite complete, and these I 

 saved, later on showing them to Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., 

 Curator of the Division of Mammals of the U. S. National 



