THE OOLOGIST. 



185 



ty to one hundred miles north of Or- 

 leans County, and for all I know they 

 may range much farther north. In the 

 A. O. U. 1886 catalogue they give it as 

 "Easteim U. S. and southern Canada, 

 west to the Plains." In Cones' Key he 

 says "Eastern U. S. and British Prov- 

 inces, N. to Canada, Minn, and Dako- 

 ta." 



Samuel in his Birds of New England 

 says that "it begins to grow scarce in 

 northern Mass.; and, before we have 

 passed twenty miles beyond its north- 

 ern limits, it is very rarely seen." But 

 Samuels' is wrong for the birds are by 

 no means scarce one hundred miles 

 north of Mass. In Gentry's superb 

 work, "Nests and Eggs of Birds of the 

 United States," he speaks of the Tow- 

 hee as reaching the Selkirk Settlement 

 on the north-west, and quotes Wilson 

 as giving it as a bird of Maine and New 

 Hampshire. In the Natural History of 

 New York by De Kay, 1843, he says, "it 

 extends its migration north to Labra- 

 dor." In North American Birds, by 

 Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, they give 

 it as reaching the Selkirk Settlement on 

 the north-west, and quote Verrill, as 

 giving it as a summer resident and 

 breeder in western Maine. 



Pei'haps some of our collectors fur- 

 ther north can give us more light on 

 the subject. Will add that in California 

 and Arizona I have taken many Oregon, 

 Spurred, Brown, Aberts and Green- 

 tailed Towhees along river bottoms and 

 among willow thickets — places never 

 frequented by our own bird in this sec" 

 tion. 



Owls as Pets. 



In the spring of '89 I caught two 

 young white owls, these I kept until 

 fall; it was amusing to watch their an- 

 tics; they would eat young birds or 

 mice whenever I could catch them. 



Once when an enterprising — — ? 



started to burrow through their cage 

 they had an extra dish. 



One of our neighbors had three mal« 

 tese kittens — they were the prize of the 

 neighborhood, but one of them came 

 too near the slats and one of the owls 

 caught him and pulled him through; 

 that ended the kitten experience. 



After living in captivity four months 

 one of the owls died; as the other seem- 

 ed lonely I stuffed him. 



This spring I caught another of the 

 same kind; he is about ten inches high 

 and is in a healthy condition; he will 

 eat all I give him and yet seems to be 

 always hungry. 



Every morning he takes his bath and 

 then rolls in the dust of his cage; his 

 favorite food is young rabbits which the 

 boys around town bring in to see him 

 eat; his cry is a hissing noise which he 

 utters with his mouth at full stretch, 

 but when he is mad he utters a sound 

 like the snapping of fingers or cluck- 

 ing- 



He sometimes hops around in his 

 cage in a dancing motion, whether he 

 does this for exercise or to scratch up 

 the dust to roll in I do not know. 



Though owls may seem very tame I 

 would advise one never to trust them, 

 for in my experience they like nothing 

 better, than to tear one's hand open. 

 V. B. Allee, 

 Paola, Kan. 



Michigan Notes- 



May 10th — Took a set of five Chicka- 

 dee's eggs from a nest situated in a hol- 

 low post. The eggs were fresh. This 

 is the first nest of this bird that I ever 

 found around here. 



May 24th — Yellow-billed Cuckoo, set 

 of three fresh eggs, nest in an ironwood 

 tree about twenty feet up, also took two 

 sets three and four Brown Thrashers, 

 three Wood Thrushes, four Wilson's 

 Thrushes and three Olive-backed 

 Thrushes. 



May 25th— While egging in a swampy 

 piece of land near Detroit I found a nest 



