330 
WILD WINGS 
single, long-focus member of the doublet lens. Though the 
shutter did not seem to alarm her, she was not quite ready 
to brave the camera, so she hew, and it was not until the 
third ai:)proach that she actually alighted on the nest and 
went to brooding. All this had taken her a little over an 
hour. I did not attempt as yet to change the plate, wishing 
her to learn that the camera was harmless. She remained 
seven minutes over her young, and then Hew off of her own 
accord. 
Just after her first approach to the nest, her mate for the 
first time made himself heard, at least by us. At the western 
edge of the grove, farthest away from roads and farms, he 
beg'an to hoot, the regular cry of the owl which is usually 
heard, — “ too-whoo-o, whoo, whoo,” — soft and mellow in 
tone, yet audible at a considerable distance. Indeed, while 
at work during fall, winter, and early spring, my friend 
who showed me the locality had heard three different 
owls hooting at once, from as many tracts of woodland. 
It was noon, and quite bright, with considerable snow in 
j)atches on the ground, yet the owl was awake and hooting. 
For about a cjuarter of an hour he hooted once or twice 
a minute. 
In the absence of the female owl I ascended the tree again 
and set the camera. It was nearly another hour before she 
came back, and twice more I pulled the thread on her when 
she perched conspicuously near the nest. I believed I had 
secured some s]:)lendid pictures. We reached home at dark, 
and after supper I hurried to the dark-room. In one case 
onlv half the owl was upon the jolate, the camera having- 
moved, and in the others the bird was more or less hidden 
by the branches. 
(^n the fifteenth of April I made the trip again, this time 
alone. It was quite mild and bright. Only patches of snow- 
