MASS. (Middlesex Co.) [Middlesex County, Massachusetts]
Bubo Virginianus
1875.
Dec. 11 [December 11, 1875]  Clear and a beautiful day. Off after
breakfast with Stone taking the car
up to the farm. In the pines along
the Mt. Auburn boundary fence heard
a great outcry from a flock of crows
and approaching as cautiously as we
could a great horned owl started out
of a large pine and made off followed
by his persecutors. This time he
lighted in the top of tall leafless oak
in the cemetery, and Stone leaving his
gun with me, climbed the fence and
made a circuit so as to draw him
back to me if possible. While he was
gone I had a fine chance to watch
the bird and the actions of the crows.
Sitting all around him some of them
within a few feet, they kept up
a continuous clamor which upon
the slightest movement on his part
fairly swelled to an uproar, some of
the birds cawing until their voices
actually cracked. The owl sitting erect
seemed to regard the [delete]persec[/delete] insults of
the crows with the most sovereign
dignity and contempt. Swelling the 
mob were also a number of blue jays.
At length the owl, started by Stone,
took flight, followed closely by the
crows, and came directly for the
place of my concealment: letting
him get a little inside of 30 yds [yards]
I rose up, put on to him deliberately
and pulled, when, "o miserabile
dictu, the cartridge missed fire.