1/4 
NATURE NOTES. 
Dodo well, for he used it as a knocker which he would sound 
when hungry, until annoyed by the noise he made, I went to 
feed him. This is but one of many incidents which go to show 
the intelligence of owls, and the cunning which was displayed 
b}" one of the nightly visitors which I tried to trap is worth 
recording. 
I was anxious to find Dodo a mate, and as scarcely a night 
passed in which this wild owl did not visit him, I decided to 
construct a net trap in which to catch it. The trap made, I 
placed it outside the cage and baited it with a dead rat, but he 
carefully alighted in such a manner as to spring the trap without 
being caught, and then, pulling the head of the rat through the 
netting, partook of his supper and departed. At last I so far 
improved my trap that it was no longer possible for him to 
spring it except from the front, and then I caught him. Un- 
fortunately Dodo and the new comer did not agree, and my wild 
owl got injured, and in spite of every care it died. I was sorry 
then that I had got the best of it over the trap. 
As I had made up my mind to get a mate for Dodo, I bought 
one, and wishing to give him still better quarters, I gave him 
my summer house for a home. In order to give them as far as 
possible what they would seek in nature, I secured a large hollow 
branch of an elm tree, and placed it in the centre in such a 
position that they could nest in it. The very first day that I 
turned them in, they took to it, and although I rarely saw them 
afterwards in the daytime, except when I entered their cage, I 
put up with that, happy in the thought of possible young. Last 
summer eggs were laid, but they got buried in the loose chips 
of rotten wood and so were lost. One step being obtained, I 
began to hope for success, so this spring I supplied them with 
material to build, and when the breeding season began I avoided 
entering the cage as much as possible. On July 4, I was 
rewarded by hearing the faint cry of young just hatched, which 
daily increases in strength, and is accompanied by the soft notes 
of the mother-bird, which are so different from the shrill cry 
uttered whilst hunting, and which I had previously had oppor- 
tunity to study in nature. I hope now to succeed in assisting 
the parent birds to successfully rear their young, but to keep 
them supplied with a sufficient quantity of suitable food is not 
an easy matter, particularly if further birds should be hatched 
out. 
Robert Morley. 
Tilfoxi, Farnham. 
