212 Corresfondence. |_Aiiril 



Kingfishers and the various carnivorous mammals can exist, as thej 

 so often do, in the greatest abundance without exterminating the defense- 

 less creatures on v^diich they prey. 



Mr. Miller, however, bases his protest on the assumption that "a 

 recognizable race" of the Short-eared Owl formerly existed on Muskeget, 

 and that the birds which Mr. Mackay caused to be destroyed might have 

 reproduced a similarly interesting form had they been left unmolested. 

 In support of the former assertion he refers to Mr. Maynard's statement 

 (Birds of Eastern N. Am., 1881, p. 264) that some specimens taken there 

 in July, 1870 were so "bleached as to appear nearly white in the dis- 

 tance" adding that "of course, at so early a period in the summer, this 

 bleaching could hardly have been due to a mechanically abraded con- 

 dition of the plumage, and indeed Mr. Maynard has personally assured 

 me that such was not the case, but that the birds i-epresented a pale, 

 resident race." 



I had the pleasure of accompanying Mr. Maynard to Muskeget in 1870, 

 and my notes relating to our mutual experience state that but four Short- 

 eared Owls were seen, and that all of these were shot. Thi-ee of the 

 skins fell to my share when the spoils of the trip were divided, and are 

 still in my collection. A male and female killed June 30 are, as Mr. 

 Maynard says, very pale in general coloring but the third bird, a female 

 taken Jul}' 2, is much darker. The plumage of all three birds is exces- 

 sively ragged, many of the feathers having lost, by abrasion, nearly or 

 quite one half of their normal area, while some of them are worn away 

 almost to the shaft. But even the lighter .two birds have a number of 

 scapulars and interscapulars which are perfect in outline and which are 

 not only much darker than the worn portions of the plumage, but nearly 

 or quite as dark as corresponding feathers of birds taken in autumn or 

 winter at places hundreds or even thousands of miles distant from 

 Muskeget. These feathers may have been of recent growth at the time 

 when the birds were killed but it is more probable that they were old 

 feathers which had been protected by the overlapping plumage from, the 

 bleaching and disintegrating effects of the air and sunlight, for the inner 

 quills, as well as the inner webs of the outer primaries and tail-feathers, 

 are almost equally fresh and perfect, in striking contrast with the frayed 

 and bleached outer portions of some of the wing and tail-feathers. 



It is, of course, quite safe to assert that at some time earlier in the 

 season the general coloring of these birds must have been not unlike that 

 which the unworn parts of the plumage now exhibit, and it seems not 

 unreasonable to assume that even these unworn feathers must have lost 

 something of their original depth and richness of tint. If this be granted, 

 and a very slight allowance made for fading, I do not see how it can be 

 maintained that the Short-eared Owls taken by Mr. Maynard and my- 

 self on Muskeget Island in 1S70 wei-e in any respects peculiar. Even if 

 the allowance for fading be not conceded it is quite possible, as I have 

 already stated, to match the unworn feathers by corresponding feathers 



