184 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



a cat or a dog, but a pig is a terror to him. 

 When Puffy was only six months old he caught 

 and killed a two-pound pullet ; yet in March and 

 April, 1891, he roosted night after night on the 

 same perch with an old Cochin hen which had 

 begun her stay in his cage by giving him an un- 

 merciful trouncing. 



So far as I have been able to ascertain, Snow- 

 don will not kill anything, no matter how hungry 

 he may be. He eats dead birds, mice, squirrels, 

 fish, snakes, mussels, turtles, if opened, and 

 butcher's scraps ; but he will make no effort to 

 catch or kill a squirrel, mouse or snake, although 

 shut up with them while hungry for a day or 

 more. In one instance of this kind he ate a 

 squirrel which he had allowed to live for twelve 

 hours, as soon as it was killed and given to him. 

 I have seem him drink once, and only once. If 

 he bathes, it is a rare occurrence and done 

 secretly. Early one morning in August, 1891, 

 I heard a splashing in the owls' water-tank. It 

 was about 3.30 A. M. Creeping to the cage, I 

 peered in, and saw Snowdon shaking himself, as 

 though he had just finished a bath. 



His method of eating is suggestive of a car- 

 rion eater. The barred owls are deliberate in 

 their way of treating their food. They search 

 for and crush joints and finny projections. In 

 a frog they feel of every limb from end to end, 



