180 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



box all day, yet with one or both eyes slightly open 

 all the while. I never once caught him with his eyes 

 shut. Ordinarily stood rather than sat on his perch. 



Oct. 29, 1855. P. M. — Up Assabet. 



Carried my owl to the hill again. Had to shake him 

 out of the box, for he did not go of his own accord. 

 (He had learned to alight on his perch, and it was sur- 

 prising how lightly and noiselessly he would hop upon 

 it.) There he stood on the grass, at first bewildered, 

 with his horns pricked up and looking toward me. In 

 this strong light the pupils of his eyes suddenly con- 

 tracted and the iris expanded till they were two great 

 brazen orbs with a centre spot merely. His attitude 

 expressed astonishment more than anything. I was 

 obliged to toss him up a little that he might feel his 

 wings, and then he flapped away low and heavily to a 

 hickory on the hillside twenty rods off. (I had let him 

 out in the plain just east of the hill.) Thither I fol- 

 lowed and tried to start him again. He was now on 

 the qui vive, yet would not start. He erected his head, 

 showing some neck, narrower than the round head 

 above. His eyes were broad brazen rings around bul- 

 lets of black. His horns stood quite an inch high, as 

 not before. As I moved around him, he turned his 

 head always toward me, till he looked directly behind 

 himself as he sat crosswise on a bough. He behaved 

 as if bewildered and dazzled, gathering all the light 

 he could and ever straining his great eyes toward you 

 to make out who you are, but not inclining to fly. I 

 had to lift him again with a stick to make him fly, 

 and then he only rose to a higher perch, where at last 



