90 



THE OOLOGIST. 



of the hole, or had he merely taken pos- 

 session of the place after it had been de- 

 serted by its former tenant? I never 

 knew. 



Of one thing I am certain however, 

 and that is that he never ate any of the 

 other cliff dwellers for he could never 

 have cauajht any of those active little 

 fellows when on the wing, and he was 

 far too large to enter their holes after 

 them. Several times I found that he 

 had been eating Chipmunks, or Ground 

 Squirrels, as they are sometimes called. 



Now the Chipmunk comes out of his 

 burrow only in the daytime and the Owl 

 hunts only by night. How then did 

 this Owl catch his Chipmunks? 



Perhaps he did not catch them alive, 

 but occasionally found dead ones, or 

 possibly they might have entered his 

 burrow when egg hunting. 



Angus Gaines, 

 Vincennes, Ind. 



The Mountain Partridge in Captivity. 



Having always been much interested 

 in the beautiful little Mountain Part- 

 ridge, I concluded, about three years 

 since, that I could learn much more 

 about them by having some of them in 

 confinement. 



I therefore obtained the help of a 

 good carjDenter and procured some 1x1 

 inch lumber nicely planed, of this he 

 soon constructed a frame, 16 feet long, 

 4 feet wide and 4 feet in height, with 

 supports of same material, about Si- 

 feet apart across top and bottom and 

 up sides, that it might be firm and also 

 light, so that it could^be moved from one 

 place to anothei', in order to have a 

 fresh run for the birds, quite frequent- 



ly- 



Then there was a neat door frame 

 made and hung in one end, tlien it was 

 ready for covering, which we did by 

 tacking 4-foot wide galvanized wire 

 netting on sides, ends, top and door, 

 leaving the bottom free. 



I had this aviary set in the dooryard, 

 where the grass was abundant; then I 

 placed in one end of it some fir brushy 

 a pan of dust, a supply of gravel and a 

 small board shelter some two feet 

 square with two sides sloping to the 

 ground, the other sides being partially 

 open and part of the bottom having a 

 floor. 



This shelter excludes the sunshine 

 and heat of summer letting the air pass 

 through freely, also keeping the rain,, 

 snow and cold winds of winter from 

 disturbing them. 



I have found that they cannot stand 

 great exposure either to the hot sun or 

 from excessive cold rains, for it is their 

 habit to seek shelter from these when 

 wild. 



Having my aviary ready I now pi'O- 

 ceeded to secure my birds, which 

 proved no diificult task, they being 

 quite plentiful in my locality, and 

 knovs^ing their habits and the places 

 which they frequented, j proceeded to 

 set some small box traps, and soon had 

 quite a number. 



This was in the fall, at which time or 

 in the winter, they are much easier 

 caught, as they are then in bands and 

 also many of them are then young; the 

 young being not only more) easily 

 taught, but also much easier tamed. 



In the first place I placed about a 

 dozen birds in the aviary, which were 

 healthy and happy; but in the bi'eeding 

 time, although they made several nests 

 and laid eggs, they had no opportunity 

 to hatch them, as their curiosity was so 

 great that each of the flock, both male 

 and female, would examine every new 

 laid egg and roll it over and over and 

 disturb it, till it could not possibly 

 hatch. Some three or four laid in one 

 nest, while only one laid in another. 



I gave a pair to a friend near New- 

 berg last spring. The hen laid 

 fourteen eggs, set on them and hatched 

 every one. 



They did nicely for some time, run- 



