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Bird - Lore 



attractive to the Brown Thrashers, who are fast becoming regular visitors 

 to the feeding-shelf in spite of alleged shyness. A pair of Thrashers made up 

 their mind to winter with us. The female succumbed after Christmas, during 

 the first zero weather, but the male lived on, roosting in some salt hay that 

 packed pipes under the north porch, feeding upon cornbread, meat-scraps, and 

 the like and sunning every day under the shelter of a bank. 



On Monday, April i, he began to sing in a broken fashion, while on the 

 loth he burst into full song! This seems to me an important record, as the 



RELEASING A LONG-EARED OWL— A STUDY IN EXPRESSION 



Photographed by Mabel Osgood Wright 



migrant Thrashers are not due until the last week of April and rarely sing 

 until May i. 



During the winter six Acadian Owls were recorded. One was picked up in 

 a half-frozen state and after being thawed out, was put in a cage and fed 

 with pieces of English Sparrows and Starlings that the warden caught for 

 it. After a time the cage was placed in the cellar, which is light and above 

 freezing temperature. The Owl was let fly about, so that it might keep its 

 wing action until the weather was mild enough to liberate it safely. The 

 cellar had been overrun with meadow mice and white-foots. Suddenly the 

 warden discovered that the little Acadian was catching them as cleverly as 

 the most experienced cat or human mouse-catcher. In a short time the cellar 



