68 C. JI. Merrlain — lilrds of Con'itecticut. 



loiulcr tliaii an ordinary church bell, and I had to swallow last to 

 keep it from coming into my throat and choking me."* 



My friend, Mr. W. W. Coe, of Portland, Conn., has had such 

 remarkable success in finding the nests, and securing the eggs, of this 

 species, that I was induced to trouble him for an account of some of 

 his exploits in that direction, and he has been kind enough to fevor 

 me with the followhig : " In 18C8, a fanner's boy told me that a pair 

 of Great Horned Owls and their two young had taken up their abode 

 in a piece of woods near his place, and that a pair had lived there for 

 several years. He had often seen them when at work in the woods 

 in winter, and observed them one morning on the lower limbs of a 

 large hemlock. One sat on a branch directly above the other and 

 had a rabbit in its claws, upon which they both seemed to be feeding. 

 He watched them for sometime and then frightened them off. The 

 bird with the rabbit carried it with him a short distance, but finally 

 dropped it. The boy offered to shoot one of the Owls for me, but I 

 told him not to do it, for I wanted to get the eggs, if possible, the 

 next year. 



" On the first of May, 1869, we went to look for the nest and found 

 it in a large chestnut tree. It contained two young Owls almost large 

 enough to fly. I l)rought them both home, stuffed one, and ke[»t the 

 other alive sometime, when it got killed while I avus away. During 

 the latter part of March, 18*70, we went again and found the Owls 

 occupying the same nest. One old bird was on, and I thought my- 

 self sure of the eggs this time, but on ascending to the nest found 

 two young Owls covered with down. They were, I should think, 

 about two weeks old, so we left them for seed and determined to be 

 in time next season, but sickness and extra woi'k forced me to neglect 

 it. In the following year (1872) we started out on the 2d of March 

 and visited the old nest, but for some reason it had been abandoned. 

 We then visited another piece of woods near by and soon found a 

 vary large nest in a chestnut tree, but it showed no sign of life. 

 While deliberating whether it was best to climb it or not, I gave the 

 tree several hard raps with a club, when off" went the old bird with a 

 hoo, hoo^ hoo. My companion climbed the tree and fomid two eggs. 

 I thought they might lay again, since it was so early, and accordingly, 

 on the 12th of April, visited the same nest, and, on getting near, a 

 bird jumped up from it which I at first took to be the OavI, but as it 

 started off" I saw it was a Red-tailed Hawk, which we found had 



* TTiirtford Times, chap, xvii, July 20, 18f>l. 



