162 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



admit that these creatures know they have not only 

 the power of inflicting pain, but where to inflict it, 

 distinguishing easily enough, it would seem, where 

 to, and where not to, grip and nip. The larger 

 gulls can make a nasty cut on one's hand. The 

 Shag draws blood easily by seizing one's digits, and 

 nipping with the sharp curved point of its upper 

 mandible. Crows dig at you, as do Divers and 

 Grebes. I had an unpleasant experience on one 

 occasion, when trying to capture a broken-winged 

 Short -eared Owl. Its needle -like claws drilled 

 several bleeding punctures. 



An old gunner named Sampson had shot a Short- 

 eared Owl, winging it. He essayed to pick it up, 

 but the poor defiant thing, ruffling and staring, 

 flung itself upon its back, seizing the fingers of one 

 hand in its claws. When the gunner tried to free 

 himself with the other hand, the owl seized the 

 fingers of that also, holding him absolutely a 

 prisoner. Do what he would he could not get clear 

 of it, and was obliged at length to kneel upon his 

 victim, and, as he said, "let out its wind." It 

 gradually relaxed its hold as the life went out of it, 

 and finally Sampson got free. He told me his 

 fingers bled freely, and were very sore, and further- 



