Cleaves: Notes on a Captive Saw-whet Owl 159 



down, together with the feathers which were attached to them. 

 Sometimes, when a very large bit was torn off, some difficulty 

 was experienced in swallowing it, and the facial expressions 

 caused by these efforts were very amusing. 



After the head had been entirely removed, the general mode 

 of procedure was to turn sidewise on the victim and, grasping 

 them near the base, tear out the large flight feathers of the wings. 

 Sometimes both the wing- and tail-feathers were removed before 

 work was begun on the body; while at others only the wing- 

 feathers were taken out first, and the tail-feathers later. The 

 victim was invariably held on its back while being eaten. Once 

 I saw the owl do a very pretty thing. In the midst of his work 

 he looked up and seemed to decide to fly to the cedar tree a few 

 feet away. He seized the body of the sparrow in his beak, flew 

 to the cedar and there transferred the sparrow once more to 

 his talons. 



Two or three times I have looked into the coop and discov- 

 ered the owl perched in the tree with the body of a sparrow 

 (with the head missing and the wing- and tail-feathers removed) 

 resting in a crotch near by. Several hours later, however, the 

 body of the sparrow would be gone, proving that it had been 

 laid aside only temporarily, or until the appetite of the owl should 

 become sharpened. 



When the supply of live sparrows gave out the owl was tried 

 on a couple of dead ones. One was placed in a crotch in the 

 cedar, and in the morning was found on the floor beneath, un- 

 touched. Probably it had been dislodged by the owl lighting in 

 the tree. The other dead bird was tied to the end of a string 

 and dragged across the floor, in an attempt to make it look life- 

 like. The owl watched it intently, but did not strike. This 

 might have been because the motion of the bird was unnatural, 

 or because the owl could see the motion of my hand in drawing 

 the thread. The sparrow was now detached from the thread 

 and slid along the shelf about a foot under the owl. This was 

 more effective. The owl's vision followed the bouncing sparrow 



