IX 



OWLS 



LONG-EARED OWL 



June 24, 1857. Went to Farmer's Swamp to look 

 for the screech owl's * nest Farmer had found. You go 

 about forty-five rods on the first path to the left in the 

 woods and then turn to the left a few rods. I found the 

 nest at last near the top of a middling-sized white pine, 

 about thirty feet from the ground. As I stood by the 

 tree, the old bird dashed by within a couple of rods, 

 uttering a peculiar mewing sound, which she kept up 

 amid the bushes, a blackbird in close pursuit of her. 

 I found the nest empty, on one side of the main stem 

 but close to it, resting on some limbs. It was made of 

 twigs rather less than an eighth of an inch thick and was 

 almost flat above, only an inch lower in the middle than 

 at the edge, about sixteen inches in diameter and six 

 or eight inches thick, with the twigs in the midst, and 

 beneath was mixed sphagnum and sedge from the swamp 

 beneath, and the lining or flooring was coarse strips 

 of grape-vine bark ; the whole pretty firmly matted 

 together. How common and important a material is 

 grape-vine bark for birds' nests ! Nature wastes no- 

 thing. There were white droppings of the young on the 

 nest and one lai-ge pellet of fur and small bones two 



^ [The situation of the nest and Thoreau's description of the notes 

 indicate a long-eared owl rather than a screech owl.] 



