134 ^ NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [16:4— April, 1920 



together with the birstle-hke whiskers about his beak gave him a 

 most oddly fehne-hke countenance. 



Cat-Hke too, was his strange manner of hissing his displeasure, 

 his powerful claws and padded feet upon which he would stalk 

 about with a silent stealthy tread. 



The plumage of the screech owl is soft and beautiful in the 

 extreme, and Peter was a paragon of finish in the way of clothes. 

 His breast feathers were surprisingly fluffy and protectively 

 colored. To stretch out his uninjured wing afforded constant 

 "pleasure, and excited much admiration in those who saw it, for a 

 feathered organ of locomotion could hardly be patterned more 

 astoundingly perfect than was developed in this small bird. Above 

 his eyes were curious little plumose feathers arranged in rows that 

 strongly suggested eyebrows. With his fine erect ear-tufts, above, 

 and grotesque short tail below, the disk-like areas around his eyes 

 and neatly folded wings, Peter was a creature to delight the eye 

 whenever he sat, as he often did, by the half hour, droll, wise and 

 stoically immobile as a meditating monk. 



To feed Peter became a great problem. He took to raw beef and 

 raisins with but a graceless indifference; but mice were his first 

 and last choice and the objects of his constant longing. To supply 

 him with the delectable rodents required much time and the exer- 

 cise of considerable contriving. The laboratory assistants and the 

 janitors at the college were pressed into Peter's service, and most 

 of the neighbors were industriously put to work setting traps that 

 his vigorous appetite might be appeased. 



One mouse a night and sometimes two kept Peter in good health, 

 but trapping his elusive food caused his master an expenditure of 

 energy greater than would be required to feed a flock of barnyard 

 fowls. When mice at last became too difficult to obtain in service- 

 able quantities, we began to feed our pet on chopped raw beef. 

 Our first trials were failures. 



Owls must regurgitate the indigestable parts of their food such 

 as the hair and bones. Regurgitation has become habit with them, 

 so Peter when fed nothing but meat would eject a portion of what 

 he had eaten from sheer force of habit. We then wrapped his food 

 in cotton, and this method of feeding proved a success. When he 

 ate raisins, he would not take them voluntarily, but swallowed 

 them readily enough when they were offered to him with tweezers. 



Peter had several well defined facial expressions that always 

 appeared under certain stimuli. When shown his cage, a look of 



