158 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



escaped and fluttered about the coop. Immediately the owl pur- 

 sued hotly the sparrow, once chasing him past my head at such 

 close range that the wings of the saw-whet almost brushed my 

 face. Both the sparrow and the starling were now raising such 

 a commotion in the coop that the owl became confused and 

 fastened his talons into the starling instead of the sparrow. 

 The starling made a terrible combination of noises, exercising 

 his lungs to their full capacity ; in the meantime flapping his 

 wings, and clawing wildly with his toes. The owl speedily dis- 

 covered his error, released the starling and went in pursuit of 

 the sparrow, which he soon caught. 



After I had had the owl for several days, a way was discovered 

 by which the greater part of the method of devouring the prey 

 could be watched. I have said that the owl would not proceed 

 to eat the sparrows after catching them, while I was inside the 

 coop. At one side of the chicken house there is a shelf, to one 

 end of which the owl generally flew after catching and killing 

 his prey. At the opposite end of the coop is the door through 

 which a person wishing to enter must pass. I found that by 

 placing a lantern midway on the shelf between the owl and the 

 door, one could stand at the door (which was opened a few 

 inches) and, unobserved, watch the owl at his evening meal. 

 The lantern, by the way, was shaded on the side toward the 

 observer. If the sparrow under the owl's claws was very lively, 

 the end was hastened with the assistance of the hooked beak, 

 which would be sunk, catlike, deeply into the throat of the 

 sparrow. After all signs of life in the victim had vanished 

 (which, with sparrows, generally took somewhat over two 

 minutes), eating was begun at the head. The brain cavity seemed 

 to be the thing first sought after, and the crunching and cracking 

 of the skull could plainly be heard at the door. Before the spar- 

 row was dead the owl would hold it in one claw and use the other 

 to stand on. After it was dead the owl stood on it with both 

 feet, thus creating a great leverage, which enabled him to tear 

 off pieces o£ the victim very easily. These pieces were gulped 



