58 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



flocks of two to three hundred individuals were present for a week, 

 more or less, after the flight of the main body southward. One of 

 these flocks it was my good fortune to observe on the ground in a 

 piece of woodland, probably feeding on the fallen beechnuts, 

 which were abundant that year. 



Their feeding was very systematic. The birds presented a quite 

 regular front of fifty or sixty yards in extent, and their ranks were 

 from ten to twenty feet in depth. As this column progressed, it 

 did so by the rear rank flying forward and alighting slightly in 

 advance of the front row. This maneuver was continually repeated, 

 so that they presented a constantly moving mass, apparently rolling 

 forward like a smoke cloud. In this manner the tract of beech- 

 wood was effectually screened. Their movements were observed 

 at our leisure — by myself and a companion — and having no gun at 

 hand, the birds were not disturbed. 



On another day of this same flight, at dusk, a flock numbering 

 several hundred was flushed from a high, untrimmed hedge of 

 osage orange, in the town of Madison ville, where they had evidently 

 gone to roost for the night. 



I do not know of the occurrence of the species here in such vast 

 numbers since that year, but have noted flocks numbering from 

 a dozen to fifty during the fall and winter, on several occasions, 

 and have shot an occasional single bird. 



367. Asio accipitrinus, Pall. Short-eared Owl. A remarkable 

 " wave" of Short-eared Owls occurred in this vicinit) in the fall 

 of 1886. 



Mr. Charles Dury, who called my attention to it, informed me 

 that he mounted some eighteen or twenty specimens brought to 

 him within a very few days. He also published the following 

 account of the "Owl Wave. 



Short-eared Owl. 



Asio accipitrinus, (Pall.) 

 " In many years I have never known this owl to be so numerous 

 in Southern Ohio. The first specimens were observed in November, 

 1866, and they remained in suitable localities until April, 1887. 

 They lived in low flat meadows that were covered with long dry 

 grasses and weeds. Near Glendale, during February, a young man 

 saw a large white owl, which from his description seemed to be Nyctea 

 myctea (Linn.), flying across a swampy field. He went home for a 



