(AED ENE) NUDIOOCUS 
leaving the skin reversed and almost un- 
torn, except at the neck. 
The village urchins came out frequently 
to see my ‘‘Owls,’’ as they usually called 
them, sometimes asking timidly if they were 
Parrots. Sam took a great fancy to bare 
feet and upon the advent of a pair would 
saunter up chattering ‘‘rikki tikki tiktikki,”’ 
etc., and would paw the bare toes and nib- 
ble at them, to the dismay of the ‘‘kid,”’ 
whose trepidation was increased by his 
ignorance of the purpose of these investiga- 
tions. 
Sam was so intelligent, allowing me to 
handle him as I pleased; to place his breast 
against my cheek, while he drew my hair 
through his bill as he did his own feathers, 
and shook hands so readily that I often 
thought of training him to hunt. So I 
fixed up a hood and jesses, but he did not 
like the hood and I did not like to worry 
him, so that came to naught. : 
After hay harvest the mow was filled and 
the Hawks were transferred to a large box 
cage with wire netting across the front. 
Jennie had always been morose and intract- 
able, usually sitting on her perch and re- 
senting all familiarities with an engry jerk 
of her foot. From this time on she began 
to show symptoms of insanity, being un- 
usually vicious and monopolizing the food 
supply so that Sam was starving. In hopes 
that Sam could get a square meal I put a 
decapitated cat in the cage, and Jennie 
gorged herself and then stood on the re- 
mainder for an hour and a half, when she 
again filled up. That settled her fate, and 
I placed a flobert rifle to her breast as she 
stood on the perch beside Sam, and——Sam 
never looked surprised or shed a tear. 
After that for a time he got along better. 
The quickness of the birds was wonder- 
ful. Sometimes I would take a live mouse 
in a trap to them as they sat on the perch, 
and they would never seem to notice it, but 
when the trap door was opened and the 
mouse leaped past them, out would goa 
foot as unconcernedly as you please and 
they never failed to seize the luckless 
rodent. 
Sometimes I would see them apparently 
watching something in the sky overhead, 
and upon looking up could occasionally 
distinguish a Hawk sailing almost out of 
sight, and they would continue watching 
long after it had vanished from my sight. 
They always took great interest in all mov- 
ing objects, and frequently changed their 
positions on the perches in order to watch 
the movements of a dog or chickens. Dur- 
ing the winter, when I would take hot 
water down to thaw the ice in Sam’s drink- 
ing cup, it was amusing to see him twist- 
ing and turning his head as he watched the 
rising vapor. 
When he wanted a bath he would hop 
down to the floor, of the cage, look at me 
suggestively and drop,and shake his breast 
feathers vertically. He often bathed dur- 
ing comparatively cold weather in winter 
and would shiver the rest of the day. 
After I started to school times got worse 
and worse for poor Sam. I had but little 
time to hunt food for him, and could not 
afford to buy it, so he often went hungry. 
Late in the winter I moved him to a hay- 
mow where he spent much time sitting in 
the windows. Though without amusement, 
and alone and half starved, he always 
showed kindly feelings toward me, until 
towards spring, reduced almost to a skele- 
ton and to desperation, he used to attack 
me and drive his talons into my flesh. 
Those were dark days for him and me, and 
I do not like to recall them. I grieved to 
see him suffer and could not bear to kill 
him. 
Finally he broke through the window 
and flew out across the country, and my 
uncle, who considers pets a vanity and 
vexation of spirit, went after him and after 
along chase brought him home and shut 
him in a box. When I came home from 
school I saw that the erisis had come, and 
as I held him in my arms, as the fumes of 
the chloroform did their work, steeling my 
heart against the death agony of the bird I 
loved, do you wonder that the tears came 
to my eyes as his struggles grew weaker 
and weaker until he lay limp and lifeless in 
my hands? 
Montgomery, Ohio. 
>t ps 
THE OOLOGISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
W. EH. SNYDER, of Beaver Dam, Wis., 
Treasurer of the Oologists’ Association, 
has issued his annual report, showing that 
twelve members were added to the Asso- 
ciation in 1896. The officers for the present 
year are: President, Isador S. Trostler; 
Vice-President, EK. A. MeIlhenny; Secretary 
and Treasurer, W. HE. Snyder; Executive 
Committeeman, J. A. Dickinson. 
