Cleaves : Notes on a Captive Saw-whet Owl i 57 



for the owl. It was evident that he could be kept captive, per- 

 haps for -an indefinite period, but where was the food supply to 

 come from? I went about the neighborhood gaining permission 

 from people to look behind the shutters of their houses and the 

 eaves of their barns for roosting English sparrows. In this 

 way four sparrows were caught at night and brought to the 

 abode of the owl. These lasted only three days, however, and it 

 was essential that more food be procured at once. 



In the small village of Princes Bay there stands a chapel, in 

 the garret of which I knew that many English sparrows were in 

 the habit of roosting. On the night of February 12 a sparrow 

 hunt was started in this building. The only entrance to the 

 attic is through a trapdoor ventilator in the ceiling, which is 

 many feet from the floor. A table was moved to a point under 

 the trapdoor, and the top of a shaky stepladder placed on this, 

 lacked nearly five feet of reaching the ceiling. With the as- 

 sistance of Mr. Skinner and Mr. G. B. Davidson the perilous 

 ascent was, after many misgivings, accomplished, and I returned 

 with four sparrows. These were all released at the same time 

 in the owlery, and one of them was caught at once; the others, 

 for the time being, were ignored. The coop was not visited 

 again until Sunday morning, February 14. The three sparrows 

 had all disappeared, and the owl sat composedly in the tree as 

 if he knew nothing whatever about them. 



On the following evening another ascent to the loft of the 

 chapel was risked, and the bag resulting from this hunt was 

 made up of three English sparrows and one European starling. 

 The starling is a bird not much smaller than the owl itself, and 

 I was interested to see what would happen following its release 

 in the coop with the saw-whet. The starling was watched intently 

 for some seconds. Then the owl made a strike at him, but the 

 starling was very lively, and was not touched. The owl became 

 more backward now, but finally made another rather undecided 

 rush at the starling, but again failed to get a hold. At this point, 

 one of the English sparrows which was being held in reserve 



