68 



RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



May 22. Female. Contained beetles. 



Oct. 10. Eight owls, in all of which were 

 insects, mostly beetles. 



Nov. 8. One owl contained millipedes. 



Nov. 24. One owl, male, contained in- 

 sects. 



Dec. 5. One owl contained mice. 



Dec. 11. One owl contained mice. 



Jan. 13. One owl contained thirteen 

 large larvae, commonly called cutworms 

 (larvae of Agrotis), and several millipedes. 



Jan. 25. One owl contained mice and 

 one European sparrow. 



These little owls are very beneficial birds. 

 The}' seem to feed on insects, in preference 

 to anything else, if they can get them. I 

 have been puzzled to tell where the owl of 

 January' 13th obtained the cutworm larvge. 

 The bird seemed to be a resident, as its 

 feathers were soiled with black coal soot, 

 commonlv seen on the birds that linger 

 long in the vicinity of the city. The rap- 

 torial birds are almost alwa^'s very fat, prov- 

 ing they take good care of themselves. 



Note. — Since the reading of this paper, 

 the letter appended has been received. It 

 explains itself: 



CiRCLEViLLE, March 5, 1885. 



Mr. Charles Dury : 



Dear Sir — I noticed a report in 3'ester- 

 day's Daily Enquirer^ of a paper read by 

 you before 30ur Society of Natural History, 

 on Rapacious Birds. 



Allow me to add some testimony to our 

 much-needed knowledge of birds of this class. 



For many years I have personally- known 

 the value of our large horned owl as a "rat- 

 ter," and will cite one instance in particular 

 as proof. 



About eight 3'ears ago, one of my men 

 discovered a pair of owlets of the large- 

 horned variety, in an old sj'camore stub, 

 near my stables on mj- farm, and concluded 

 to capture them alive. With some risk to 

 himself, he succeeded in securing them, but 

 not without a regular fight with the old ones, 

 who gave him a few wounds. In the nest 

 where he got the .young owls, he noticed 

 several full-grown Norway i-ats, with their 

 skulls opened, and the brains removed. On 

 descending to the ground, he also noticed 

 the bodies of many rats around the tree, and 

 out of curiosity counted them, and found 

 the bodies of 113 rats, most of them full- 



grown. They all appeared to simply- have 

 had their skulls opened, and the brains re- 

 moved ; and from their uncleca3'ed appear- 

 ance, must all have been captured within 

 the previous week, or ten dajs. 



On account of their nocturnal habits, from 

 m}- personal experience and observation, I 

 consider the owl, especially the great horned 

 owl, a bird of great value to the farmer, es- 

 pecially as a ratter. 



Yours, O. E. NiLES. 



Journal of the Cincinnati Society of 

 Natural History, April, 1885. 



The Native Trees of Rhode Island. 



BY L. \V. RUSSELL. 



No. IV. 



Quercus prinus. 

 (Variety unnamed.) 

 Of the biennial-fruited oaks found in 

 Rhode Island there is a single specimen be- 

 longing to the chestnut-oak division, which 

 deserves special mention. I do not find an}- 

 description in botanical works b}' which it 

 can be identified as an}- named variety. I 

 am inclined, with some of our local botanists, 

 to regard it as a hybrid, probabl}- of the Q. 

 alba and Q. bicolor, both of which are found 

 abundantly near it. 



So far as the writer can learn, no other 

 specimen of its peculiar characteristics is 

 known in this state or elsewhere. The view 

 of this being a hybrid is the more probable 

 from the well-known tendenc}- of the oaks 

 to cross. 



This tree is located in Providence, a half 

 mile from Seekonk River, in an unimproved 

 lot near the junction of Arlington and Presi- 

 dent avenues. It is about forty feet high, 

 with wide-spreading top, the lower limbs 

 striking out horizontally, but not having the 

 contortions common to the white oaks. The 

 general aspect of the tree, however, in the 

 distance is that of the white oak. The 

 bark resembles that of the sub-division to 

 which it belongs, being much like that of a 

 chestnut tree. The leaves are peculiar. 

 Thev average with the petiole, which is 

 about an inch long, seven inches in length. 



