iSgo.] Bolles, Barred Otvh in Captivity. lOQ 



from all directions eager to see the cause of disturbance. Even 

 when I was imperfectly concealed, the irritated crowd paid little 

 attention to me, provided I kept reasonably quiet. Sometimes 

 1 would leave the Owl in comparatively open ground on a boulder 

 in a pasture, or a stump in a meadow. Then his favorite posi- 

 tion was with his head tipped directly backward and his eyes, 

 half closed, fixed either on the sun or a spot not ten degrees from 

 it. I never could fully understand this attitude, but I soon found 

 that the Owl was keenlv alive to anything passing skyward, for 

 if a Hawk or Crow came into view far away in the deep blue, 

 Puffy' s gaze was instantly turned full upon the growing speck, 

 the eyelids partly closed and a most intent look coming into 

 his eyes. Again and again Puffy has seen Hawks or Gulls oxer- 

 head which my eyes, although unusually far-sighted, have at first 

 been unable to discern. On one eventful day he showed me 334 

 Hawks sailing southwest under the pressure of a stiff northeast 

 gale, it was .September 10, one of the later of the days when 

 the fires were raging among the forests along the St. John River. 

 The Hawks were most of them flying very high. I saw none before 

 9 a. m. or after 2.15 p.m. I think Puffy saw every one of them. 

 It mattered not whether they came singly or in bunches of twenty 

 to forty, his ever ready eye was upon them as soon as they 

 came into view. In spite of this marvellous power of detecting- 

 moving objects in a bright light, my pets often utterly ignore 

 some dainty morsel merely because it does not move. Their 

 sense of smell is either weak or uncertain in its action. Their 

 hearing on the other hand is acute, although not depended upon 

 in the same degree as their sight. 



Of the various families of birds which Puffy annoyed during 

 the summer of 18S9 none were more distressed and angered by 

 his presence than the Woodpeckers, Thrushes, and Vireos. 

 In every hemlock swamp the Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers and 

 Flickers said their say against his character with petulant emphasis. 

 The Flickers often flew close to his head. Downies and Hairies 

 liked him no better, but were less demonstrative. It was when 

 a venerable and fiery-tempered Logcock caught sight of him 

 on August 21, that the full force of Woodpecker eloquence was 

 let out. Puffy seemed to recognize a hereditary foe, for before 

 the Pileated came into my view the Owl suddenly changed his 



