198 THE WILSON BULLETIN— December, 1921 



BURROWING OWL LAYS EGG IN CAPTIVITY 

 Last season, on April 20th. 1920, while digging out a burrowing 

 owl hole in a wheat field in Benicia I captured the female owl in 

 the nest cavity. One egg had been laid in the enlarged chamber, 

 six feet from the entrance, with no nest except dried horse dung, 

 which carpeted the burrow from the entrance. I took the owl home 

 and improvised a cage for her. On the morning of the second day 

 after her capture, when we arose in the morning, we found an egg 

 on the board floor of the box in which we had confined her. I 

 thought she might lay some more as this was but her second one, 

 and one's natural impression would be that eggs in process of forma- 

 tion would necessarily have to develop and be deposited; however, 

 birds apparently have remarkable control over this function, as. 

 for instance, is evidenced by the fact that a complete new set of 

 eggs can be brought into existence within a comparatively few days 

 after the destruction of a previous set. It also appears that they 

 can stop laying if they so desire, and this she did, as, although I 

 kept her five days longer, she would lay no more. As I had no ac- 

 cess to mice or other rodents I shot some sparrows, one or two a 

 day, though no doubt she could have taken care of more. These 

 she ate entirely, leaving no sign of flesh, feathers, or claws, though 

 she would not eat if she was aware that anyone was watching her. 

 When anyone appeared suddenly in front of her cage she would 

 assume an attitude of willingness to take either offensive or defen- 

 sive, at the same time uttering a long scream and glaring at the 

 intruder until she got accustomed to his presence, then she would 

 settle down, continuing to glare at him. If our cat showed him- 

 self there was a continual screaming until the animal disappeared. 

 After our interesting little visitor had spent her seventh day with 

 us we took her back to the same field and released her. 



Benicia, Solano County, Calif. Emer.son A. Stoxer. 



THE CHICAGO ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

 Dr. R. M. Strong, with twenty-two students of ornithology in 

 the University of Chicago, founded the Chicago Ornithological 

 Society in December, 1912. The purpose of the Society being to 

 stimulate interest in the study of Bird Life, especially our local 

 birds, by the collection of data and comparison of field notes on 

 the birds of the Chicago area. 



The meetings were at first held in the buildings of the Uni- 

 versity, but as the membership of the Society grev/, with mem- 

 bers residing in all parts of the city, a central meeting place be- 

 came desirable, and since 1915 the Society has held monthly meet- 

 ings in the Loop District. A number of our members were kind 

 enough to tender the use of their downtown offices for this pur- 

 pose and those of us who have attended these meetings during 



