THE OOLOGIST. 



93 



Collecting Live Birds. 



To the genuine Naturalist, who will 

 take the trouble to feed and take care of 

 birds, the live birds are much more in- 

 teresting and valuable for study than 

 the mounted specimens. Although 

 there are comparatively few species 

 which cau be captured and kept alive 

 at a small expense. 



In the last few years I have had quite 

 a number of live birds, among them 

 were Hawks, Barred and Screech 

 Owls, and a large number of Crows 

 and more common birds. 



If any of the younger collectors were 

 going to start a collection of live birds, 

 I would advise them to start out with 

 Crows, as they are easily tamed and 

 will eat anything digestible by man or 

 beast. They will also eat cuff-buttons, 

 rings or anything of shiny appearance. 

 Although I would not advise the use of 

 the latter articles in the way of food 

 for Crows. I have heard that they can 

 be taught to talk, but I have not tried 

 teaching them. 



Next easiest to tame in my exper- 

 ience, comes the Owls. My last Bar- 

 red Owl would set on my arm and let 

 me pet him. My Owls would eat noth- 

 ing but meat. I let the Screech Owls 

 (last summer I had eight in number) 

 loose in the barn to live on mice; only 

 giving them a few English Sparrows or 

 a piece of beef steak once a week for a 

 change of diet. 



My only specimen of Black Hawk did 

 not become tame enough to handle, but 

 would eat meat from my hand. He is 

 now a "stuffed bird." 



While hunting I captured a young 

 Sora Rail; he graced my collection for 

 about a month, when one night he 

 made a fatal expedition through the 

 bars into the next cage which contained 

 some Barred Owls. A few feathers 

 scattered about the cage told his sad 

 end. 



A friend of mine tried keeping Prai- 



rie Hens, but after a short time they 

 either all died or escaped. I have never 

 heard of anybody keeping them in cap- 

 tivity with any success. Mr. Studer in 

 his "Birds of North America" speaks of 

 keeping Bob-whites with success for 

 several seasons. 



Some of our birds, among them the 

 Woodpeckers, will die if kept in cap- 

 tivity. 



The only instance in my experience of 

 wild birds nesting in captivity, was last 

 Spring, a Screech Owl laid a set of four 

 eggs, which are now in my collection. 

 I generally start collecting live birds 

 (also the smaller animals and snakes) 

 about April first and in the latter part 

 of September, I either convert into 

 skins or set free my "menagerie, "except- 

 ing the very tame ones which take up 

 quarters in the barn for the winter. 

 Walter A. Johnson, 

 Galesburg, Ills. 



Accidental Death of Birds. 



In one of our well known ornitholo 

 gical publications there appeared re- 

 cently an interesting article on "The 

 Accidental Death of Birds," in which 

 the writer tells of a number of cases 

 that came under his observation in 

 which birds had lost their lives by pure- 

 ly accidental causes. 



Having met with several such cases 

 in my own experience, and thinking 

 they might possibly be of interest to 

 some of the many readers of the Oolo- 

 gist, I send them in. 



One autumn, several years ago, while 

 wandering over a collecting field of 

 previous seasons I found the remains of 

 a song sparrow and its nest, the bird 

 had used some string in building the 

 nest and in this had become so entan- 

 gled that it was unable to regain its 

 freedom, and had consequently died, 

 evidently from starvation. 



I remember a case of accidental death 

 that occurred to a family of young Yel- 



