A QUEER PARTNERSHIP. 



A fine afternoon of that lovely spring 

 month, May, found me ready for an af- 

 ternoon collecting- among the birds. 

 Leaving home, I made my way to the 

 river bank, and slowly strolled along its 

 banks, finding much to amuse and inter- 

 est me among the birds and flowers, see- 

 ing many old friends and a few new ones. 

 After going about half a mile, I came to 

 a well wooded place on one of the banks 

 where the tall pines found safe homes for 

 the crows, and a few families were raised 

 here every year. A little way back, 

 partly up the hill, was a dead bass- 

 wood stump or tree, which contained the 

 home of a golden-winged woodpecker 

 or flicker, which I had found a few days 

 before by seeing the bird leaving the nest- 

 ing hole. As the hole was between 30 

 and 40 feet from the ground, I put on 

 m.y climbers and was soon in a position 

 to investigate ; so, seating myself on a 

 large limb that branched out just below 

 the nest, I inserted my hand, and got 

 quite a start on catching hold of some 

 soft, downy creature, which I thought 

 must be a squirrel, but imagine my sur- 

 prise to find that I had secured an adult 

 screech owl from out of the woodpeck- 

 er's nest. The owl, which had lain quietly 

 enough in my hands, put an end to my 

 thoughts by suddenly coming to life, and 

 very active life at that, and putting its 

 claws into my hand, prepared to give 

 itself a good startoff. But I had hold of 

 its legs, and as I did not like the way it 

 was holding on, I put it back into the 

 hole, from which in the meantime I had 

 taken an egg, which on examining proved 

 to be the woodpecker's and not an owl 

 egg. Though the eggs are both white, the 

 woodpecker's is larger than it is broad 

 and more of a glossy texture, while the 

 owl's is nearly round and also much 

 larger. 



Now was the puzzle, what was the 

 owl doing in the woodpecker's nest. 



which was claimed by the latter, as it 

 had deposited an egg in it, and also was 

 seen leaving the nest a day or two be- 

 fore. The only conclusion that I could 

 arrive at was that the owl had taken 

 possession for the day and so turned the 

 woodpecker out. 



So far I had not been able to find an 

 owl's nest, but as I could see by the loss 

 of feathers that the owl had beeen setting 

 I proceeded to try and find the nest, and 

 decided to try the tree further up; so, 

 leaving the owl in the flicker's home, I 

 continued my climb to the top of the 

 stub, and found the top rotted away, leav- 

 ing quite a hollow eighteen inches deep 

 with a small hole through a rotten place 

 in the bark, through which I could see 

 something white, so, carefully putting in 

 my hands, I was deHghted to find four 

 young owls which were about ten days 

 old, ugly little things, covered with a 

 dirty white down, with the feathers just 

 commencing to show and with their yel- 

 low beaks and large eyes. They did not 

 look a very interesting pet, but still I 

 secured two and left two* for the mother 

 owl. I descended the tree and put my 

 treasure safely away in my collecting bag. 



I would like to know how the owl and 

 flicker arranged the boarding matter, for 

 I did not get time to go back for a week, 

 when from the woodpecker's nest I took 

 six eggs and found the two owlets nearly 

 ready to fly, but I saw neither of the old 

 birds. So whether the owl continued to 

 stay with the flicker or not, or whether 

 it had just gone for the day, I shall never 

 know ; but still it was interesting to find 

 the two nests on the one tree within three 

 feet of each other, one containing eggs 

 and the other young birds. 



The owls that I had taken were safely 

 reared and prove both amusing and in- 

 teresting pets, but their life while in my 

 keeping we will leave for another time. 



D. Welby. 



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