198 



THE OOLOGIST 



birds, there occurred an incident, 

 which though it be aside from the 

 main point, seems worth recording. 

 The birds now were perched near 

 each other on the dead tree. The 

 male was on the topmost prong as 

 usual. Suddenly I saw him dart up- 

 ward with great speed at an angle of 

 about seventy degrees. Immediately 

 following him went the female. After 

 rising about one hundred feet in 

 straight flight, the pair began to 

 ascend in circles which grew small- 

 er as they rose. They kept quite 

 close together and yet there was no 

 appearance of one trying to overtake 

 the other. Finally when they were 

 specks against the sky, they seemed 

 to pause, and then down they came 

 with wings partly folded in jerky, 

 erratic flight, in true woodcock fash- 

 ion. During the whole novel per- 

 formance, I heard no note and when 

 they alighted again, they began feed- 

 ing as though nothing had happened. 

 This is the only time I have ever 

 seen the Olive Sided perform in this 

 manner. 



Only July 4th, I again visited the 

 nest, feeling sure there would be 

 eggs by this time. The nest was 

 completed but empty and the birds 

 objected vociferously when I climbed 

 the tree. 



About this time I left Wolfville. 

 Returning July 16th I went to the 

 nest. It contained three beautiful 

 marked eggs, incubated, but slightly. 

 Both birds were very bold in the de- 

 fense of the nest and in darting at 

 me, came so close that I could feel 

 the rush of their wings as they 

 passed and hear their beaks snap. 

 They would alight within ten feet of 

 me and continue the snapping of 

 their beaks, sometimes, before dart- 

 ing again. The alarm note is now 

 uttered continuously as above des- 

 cribed. 



This for a first nest was remark- 

 ably late, but under the circumstan- 

 ces quite excusable. 



Where he was fortunate enough to 

 find a second mate at this unseason- 

 able time is still a mystery. Possi- 

 bly it was some female whose own 

 family had been broken up by a trag- 

 edy similar to his own, — a tragedy 

 which some small boy with an air 

 gun, or some "pet" cat might be able 

 to explain, R. W. Tufts. 



Barn Owl. 



It was on the 9th of May when a 

 friend came to me and said that he 

 had shot a beautiful Owl, and know- 

 ing that I was interested in birds 

 asked me if I wanted the bird for 

 mounting purposes. I asked him what 

 kind of Owl it was he said he did 

 not know but he thought it was what 

 is called the monkey faced owl, and 

 upon asking him what his object was 

 in shooting the bird he told me that 

 the bird was flying over the chicken 

 park and he fearing it being what he 

 called a chicken Hawk so he shot the 

 bird but was very much surprised 

 when the bird fell that it was an 

 Owl. 



So my friend started back to get 

 the bird, he returned within about 

 two hours he did not have the bird, 

 but told me that I had better go with 

 him for they had captured another 

 bird of the same kind and also two 

 eggs. 



I at once started for the place 

 where the owl was, it was five miles 

 from town and within an hour's time 

 we reached the place. I found to my 

 surprise a pair of barn owls, one was 

 still lying where it fell after being 

 shot and the other had been crippled 

 when it was taken from the hollow 

 of the tree and was in a large box 

 and two eggs had also been taken 

 from the tree. 



I was very sorry that these beau- 

 tiful birds had been disturbed but 

 was going to do all in my power to 

 restore the captive bird to its free- 

 dom, and upon asking my friend 

 where the tree was that the captive 

 bird had been taken from he took me 

 to the barnyard about ten rods from 

 the house. Upon arriving there he 

 pointed to a tree about ten feet from 

 the barn. There was a large opening 

 in the tree about twenty feet from 

 the ground and in this hollow the 



