Notes from the Indiana Sand Dunes 



off my pack, when something a few yards 

 overhead drew my attention, and looking up 

 I discovered a long-eared owl staring down at 

 me intently. Silently he ghded away into the 

 swamp underbrush. A glance at the ground 

 strewn with pellets told me this was one of his, 

 regular perches. My eye fell on a seedy-look- 

 ing crow's nest, situated in the top of a half 

 fallen tree, which on the face of things was 

 long since abandoned by its original owners. 

 It did not deserve a second glance, but the 

 ends of a pair of diverging sticks projecting 

 above the rim, somehow riveted my attention. 

 Irresistibly my eye returned again and again 

 to the leaning tree. Surely such a ramshackle 

 aiFair without a leaf to shelter it would not be 

 selected as an abode by any bird. Still by 

 tossing up a stick the matter could be easily 

 settled. 



A long-eared owl slipped off and glided 

 after its mate into the swamp underbrush. 



77 



