102 BoLLES, Barred O-vh in Captivity. [April 



yard they half hopped, half flew towards the nearest tree, 

 making such rapid progress that I did not risk their loss by a 

 second experiment. For their permanent prison I chose a case 

 in which a piano had been boxed. By standing it upon its end, 

 and nailing perches at different heights, ample space was given 

 the captives. The front of the box was barred horizontally by 

 laths. 



On what could the Owls be fed? That was my first problem. 

 Not sharing in the belief of my family that everything in feathers 

 eats dough, I tried raw beef. The birds found it too tough to 

 manage readily, and raw liver was substituted. Nothing could have 

 suited them better, and for the best part of eighteen months liver 

 and beef kidney have been the chief of their diet. For the birds' 

 names the feminine half of my household agreed upon 'Puffy' and 

 'Fluffy.' At first the names were not of much use, for no one 

 could tell one bird from the other, but it was not long before an 

 event occurred which not only caused them to be readily distin- 

 guished, but led to a lifelong differentiation of their characters and 

 careers. Puffy, or he who was thenceforth to be Puffy, caught 

 his left wing between two of the laths, and by his struggles in- 

 jured it so that it lost most of its usefulness as a wing and became 

 rather an obstruction to his free locomotion. This happened 

 about the middle of June, after my return to Cambridge, and I did 

 not see the Owls again until the second w r eek in July when my 

 long vacation at Chocorua began. I found the birds fifty per cent 

 larger than when I first handled them, and with tempers similar- 

 ly developed. No one's fingers were sa+e inside the bars when 

 the young gluttons were hungry. When satiated they were 

 stolid, and did little beyond moving their heads and snapping 

 their beaks. One interesting fact had been developed during my 

 absence : the Owls not only drank water freely, but took pro- 

 longed baths whenever fresh water was given them. Their tank 

 was a foot and a half long, a foot wide, and ten inches deep. 

 Their i-eflections in this comparatively deep and dark pool greatly 

 amused them for a time. On the arrival of fresh water Fluffy 

 was usually the first at the brink, ready to drink several times, 

 and then to step cautiously in. He would test the depth before 

 ducking his head, and then, holding out his wings, he would 

 pump the water under them, flapping his tail and otherwise 

 drenching himself. When thus soaked he became about the size 



