THE OOLOQI8T 



27 



I greatly desired to save so unusual 

 a set. I therefore rinsed the partly- 

 emptied eggs, carefully; and blew the 

 others: (which of course, were fresh). 

 On reaching home I prepared the eggs 

 in this set, as above indicated. By 

 holding the much-broken egg gently, 

 but firmly, with thumb on one end and 

 fore-finger on the other, I was able to 

 "treat" it without crushing. And now, 

 with its fellows, it is one of the treas- 

 ures of my cabinet: loath as you may 

 be to believe it. 



1 am well aware that the dilettanti 

 among collectors will ridicule this idea 

 of mine, without measure. But I shall 

 still smile back at them, remembering 

 how instructive is that one crushed 

 egg, now secure against all ordinary 

 breakage, as it lies beside its rarely- 

 beautiful pin-hole-blown fellow. We 

 older "boys" turn many a trick that 

 may not appeal to the other fellow; 

 we get lots of fun out of such ex- 

 ploits. 



P. B. Peabody, 

 Blue Rapids, Kansas. 



NESTING OF THE AMERICAN 

 HAWK OWL 



On my arrival in Manitoba, seven 

 years ago, the American Hawk Owl 

 was a very common bird, at least in 

 this northern part of the province. 

 Without doubt, it was by far the most 

 common one of all the owls. During 

 the winter 1913-14 several were shot 

 here by "Sunday-hunters," and "the 

 boy with the 22" destroyed many of 

 them, knowing little and caring less of 

 what he was doing. 



During the summer 1914 this semi- 

 nocturnal raptor evidently bred here, 

 as specimens were often seen during 

 the breeding months, yet no nests 

 were found. 



After that year this owl was grad- 

 ually getting rarer, and finally it dis- 

 appeared entirely. I have not seen a 



hawk owl for three years. 



One day last summer (June 28, 

 1920), when I was walking through the 

 woods near a small lake, following an 

 old unused trail, that in winter times 

 I use for a trap-line, I got a surprise 

 of my life, and a pleasant surprise it 

 certainly was. In an old dead willow 

 bush, within a few paces of the trail 

 is an old crow's nest which I had 

 known for years. This nest is only 

 five feet above ground and another 

 heavy, dead willow bush has fallen 

 over the bush containing the nest, in 

 such manner, that it forms a sort of a 

 slanting roof over the nest some fif- 

 teen inches above it. I had never 

 seen a crow nor any other bird in this 

 nest, yet as I have a habit of looking 

 into "^^ old nests, when within an easy 

 re: h, on this particular trip I stepped 

 off the trail to peep into the nest. 

 Wlien I was within a step or two, off 

 flew a bird, only to light on the branch 

 of the next willow bush. Sure enough, 

 right there before me was the Ameri- 

 can Hawk Owl, snapping her bill at 

 me and wondering what I was about 

 And I had not seen a Hawk Owl for 

 three years! 



In the nest were three very heavily 

 incubated eggs, which I collected of 

 course, and was successful enough in 

 preparing first class specimens of 

 them, with moderately large holes. 

 The eggs average 1.48 x 1 18 in size, 

 and are decidedly smaller than the 

 eggs in a set of the European Hawk 

 Owl, which I have and which also is 

 a personally collected set. 



In the spring of the year 1912 I made 

 a trip to my native country, Finland, 

 and while there I collected several 

 sets of eggs, among them being a set 

 of four of the Ha'wk Owl. This last 

 mentioned set was in an old hollow 

 poplar tree, which had been excavated 

 by the Great Black Woodpecker. The 



