139
Concord, Mass.
1898.
June 21
(No 4)
 It is time to take up the history of the young
Great Horned Owl that I had of Davis. Shortly after
getting him I saw Henry Lawrence who told me that
he found the two young sitting side by side on the branch
of a tall pine in the woods by the river. As he
approached the larger one flew and he shot it breaking
its wing. He did not molest the other young bird but
he fired at and, as he thinks, wounded one of the
parents.
  I kept this young Owl in a cage in the woods near
the cabin for upwards of two weeks. Like all of its
fierce race it was surly and untamable threatening
every one who approached it closely by snapping its bill
and making quick threats with its formidable talons.
It finally learned to tolerate Gilbert, however, and took
raw meat from his fingers thanklessly enough but
without much active resentment. At intervals of from
one to five minutes during the night and occasionally
by day, as well, it uttered a short, harsh, penetrating
cry which was not unlike the peep of Chordeiles and
which, as doubt, was merely a variation - perhaps
characteristic of very young birds - of the Jay-like
cry that I hear every autumn at Lake Umbogog.
I suspect that by means of this call it finally
attracted the attention of one of its parents for
early one morning a number of crows began making
a great outcry in the oaks over the cage and
Gilbert who went out to investigate the cause
of the disturbance found them mobbing a large
Owl which sailed off through the trees as he
approached.