WAYS OF THE OWL. 177 



bing" their heads with my bare hands. They 

 became more and more gentle, and I found that 

 even when they nipped me with their beaks 

 they did not attempt to cause serious pain. One 

 of them, whose name is Puffy, injured his wing 

 early in his captivity, and has never been able to 

 fly. The other I keep clipped in one wing. In 

 the spring of 1889 I began taking Puffy with 

 me on walks. I found at once that he was 

 wonderfully useful in attracting other birds. 

 During the summer of 1889, the following winter, 

 and tlie summers of 1890 and 1891 he was my 

 companion on walks, drives, and trips in my 

 Rushton boat. To a smaller extent I have 

 taken his mate Fluffy with me, but he is of a less 

 patient disposition than Puffy, and during a long 

 walk is sure to hop from the stick upon which I 

 carry him many more times than Puffy would 

 in an equal period. In May, 1891, I secured a 

 third baby barred owl from the same beech-tree. 

 From the first hour that he was imprisoned he 

 has shown an irritable temper. His whining 

 as a young bird was incessant by day and not 

 always suspended by night. Now, at the age 

 of nine months, he whines whenever any one 

 approaches him, and frequently makes violent 

 assaults upon me when I enter the part of my 

 cellar in which the owls are penned. Puffy and 

 Fluffy during their first summer were quite 



