BARRED OWLS IN CAPTIVITY. 117 



with feet pointed forward and claws ready to 

 close ; but Puffy, unable to fly, stalks across the 

 floor, Ills head pushed forward, and his feathers 

 drawn away from his legs. 



As the spring of 1889 came on, the owls be- 

 came tuneful after their kind. The quality of 

 their sounds suggested feline music, while their 

 accent and metre often aroused my roosters to 

 responsive crowing. They seldom hooted more 

 than once or twice, and then in the early evening. 



With the coming of warm weather and the 

 return of birds in the spring of 1889, I began a 

 series of experiments with Puffy which proved 

 of considerable interest. I had found that he 

 was willing to be carried about while perching 

 on a short stick. Taking him in a basket to some 

 woods in the suburbs of Cambridge, I displayed 

 him to the robins, pigeon woodpeckers, vireos 

 and warblers which chanced to be at hand. 

 No impressario ever was more delighted at the 

 success of a new star. A full house gathered at 

 once. Armed with a field glass I had the satis- 

 faction of studying at short range the whole bird 

 population of the neighborhood. The robins, 

 brown thrushes, and pigeon woodpeckers were 

 the noisiest, the oven-birds and red-eyed vireos 

 the most persistent, the chickadees the most in- 

 dignant. The woodpeckers went so far as to fly 

 past the owl so close as to brush his feathers 



