70
Concord, Mass.
1898.
May 1
(No 2)          
in other respects although it is shorter and
less showy and penetrating. Depsite the fact
that the Yellow rump does not breed here it
is the earliest bird to reach us whose [delete]plumage[/delete]
coloring suggests summer as the Black & White
Creeper is the first whose song carries the same
suggestion. Of the Creepers, by the way, we
saw or heard four or five during the forenoon.
  Following the old wood path we presently
reached the top of the hill when a most 
interesting experience awaited us. As we began
rambling about through the fine old woods I
noticed, every few steps, large pellets of fur &
bones scattered about under the trees. I had
just remarked to Purdie that a Great Horned
Owl must have been living in the neighbourhood
and that it was probably the same bird 
which I have heard several times this spring
near Ball's Hill when, raising my eyes, I saw
what I took at first to be a dead sheep
lying at the foot of a larger pine about
thirty yards off but on approaching nearer we
discovered that the whitish-looking object, very
conspicuous on the russet-brown surface of the
ground, was two young Great Horned Owls huddled
close together. They were fully three-quarters grown
and already well-feathered although enough down
still adhered to the tips of the feathers to give
them a generally whitish appearance. One of these
opened its pale yellow eyes wide and stared