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Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



horned owl, as a " ratter," and will cite one instance in particular 

 as proof. 



About eight years ago, one of my men discovered a pair of 

 owlets of the large-horned variety, in an old sycamore stub, near my 

 stables on my farm, and concluded to capture them alive. With some 

 risk to himself, he succeeded in securing them, but not without a 

 regular fight with the old ones, who gave him a few wounds. In 

 the nest where he got the young owls, he noticed several full-grown 

 Norway rats, with their skulls opened, and the brains removed. 

 On descending to the ground, he also noticed the bodies of 

 many rats around the tree, and out of curiosity counted them, and 

 found the bodies of 113 rats, most of them full-grown. They all 

 appeared to simply have had their skulls opened, and the brains 

 removed; and from their undecayed appearance, must all have 

 been captured within the previous week, or ten days. 



These young owls were taken to C. R. Goldrudeick, Circleville, 

 reared to full growth, and kept several years. They were fed lib- 

 erally with scraps of fresh beef and the offal of fowls, and having 

 more feed than they could consume, their domicile became an attrac- 

 tion to rats, which are very numerous about the premises. The 

 owls soon got on to their business, and commenced killing the rats. 

 It was a frequent evening remark made by the proprietor of the 

 grocery where they were kept, "They have got another one." 

 "Got another what?" "Why those owls have just got another rat; 

 I heard them." While apparently asleep, and playing "possum " 

 on their perch, if, an unlucky rat crept into their cage, they would 

 pounce down and kill it as quickly as any rat-terrier, and take the 

 brains out only. 



On account of their nocturnal habits, from my personal experi- 

 ence and observation, I consider the owl, especially the great- 

 horned owl, a bird of great value to the farmer, especially as a 

 ratter. Yours, O. E. Niles. 



At the conclusion of the reading of the paper, Mr. Wm. H. 

 Fisher stated, that at Cumminsville, where a number of large trees 

 had been cut down, quite a number of owls had been found. He 

 corroborated Mr. Dury's statement, that one owl will feed on 



