New Eng. Rap tores. Number Eggs in 
a set. P. H. Carpenter. 
Long-eared Owl, (Asio wilsonianus) . 
1 set of 3 
4 u “4 
1 “ “5 
O.&O. XII. Oct. 1887 p.168 
yj xv im in yj l, vj 
Collection of Rap tores E 
Am. Long-eared Owl, 1-4, 1-4, 3-6, 1-7 
O.&O. XV. Apr. 1890. p. 53 
o, r. 
(* * :w 
one (?gg. The young varied much in size anfi must have 
been notched at different times. The eggs or the first set I 
found snowed the same variation in the siarof the embryos. 
I don’t thick these birds ever prey upo^mnything but small 
animals, aim. I have never found them in the vicinity of 
timber. I h*Nm tried trapping then* by placing a steel trap 
on the top of\a pole, but nev§r succeeded in catching a 
bird.” 
Tlie following' 
Callum, Dunvil 
addition to the 
repbived from G. A. Mc- 
nt., is also a valuable 
history of this bird : 
A flock of Short-sdrefl o\Hs, that is if six may be called a 
flock, have taken /ip their residence in the outskirts of our 
town this wintei/(1882-3), andNs many as four have been 
seen together lotting about the fields as if in play, dipping 
down to thy ground, then soaringsup again, chasing one 
another, ei/. Is this conduct not odd 7\ I have secured two 
of them And hope to bag the rest, although they are very 
wary. jL friend of mine while shooting na the marsh last 
fall haajust shot a snipe when one of this gmius darted at 
the falling bird and bad secured it, when thetother barrel 
i he now sits in my collection. 
Long-eared Owl. 
\- Average 
cimens of 
harpe), all 
L.59X1.30 
1 measure 
38, 1.63 X 
2 and 1.57 
ol. VI.— 
On the 12th of April, 1880, I flushed 
out of a cedar tree, in the middle of chest- 
nut woods, a pair of Long-eared Owls, 
these being tlie first I had ever seen in 
this section. I commenced a most vigor- 
ous search for the nest, but failed to find 
it; the Owls in the meantime manifested 
their disapproval of intruders by giving 
vent to their low, plaintive wails, varied by 
an occasional grating sound, and some- 
times biting at the limb on which they 
would alight, which induced me to believe 
they contemplated building near by. I re- 
turned on April 18th and started the fe- 
male from an old Crow’s nest which a pair 
of Squirrels had piled with fine grass and 
leaves, and which contained four eggs in 
the most comfortable nest I ever saw. 
They had burrowed down to the hollow 
and left simply a space large enough for 
their heads to stick up through to the outer 
world. The average of the eggs in meas- 
urement was 1.35 X 1.22. The next season 
(1881) I could find no nest in that wood, 
but on the other side of an immense 
o 
5 
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_AND — 
OOLOGIST. 
$1.00 per 
Annum. 
Joseph M. Wade, Editor and Publisher. 
Established, March, 1875. 
Single Copy, 
10 Cents. 
VOL. VII. 
NORWICH, CONN., OCTOBER, 1882. 
No. 21. 
American Long-eared Owl. 
OUR FIRST owl’s NEST. 
For several seasons we worked indus- 
triously, sparing neither shoe leather nor 
horse flesh, in the hope of finding an owl’s 
nest, and that the first one would prove 
that of a Great-horned Owl. But each sea- 
son passed away without success, and we 
the more determined not to buy, hut to 
persevere until success crowned our efforts, 
when in the early Spring of 1879 we re- 
ceived a box from Portland, Conn., con- 
taining two beautiful eggs of the Great- 
liorned Owl, a present from W. W. Coe, 
who has taken the eggs so many years in 
succession from this pair that he now 
jokingly alludes to them as the “ Coe 
strain.” The eggs in question were so far 
advanced in incubation that one of the 
young ones poked his bill through the 
shell as they lay on the table, and yet 
through Mr. Coe’s patience and persever- 
ance a set of eggs were produced fine 
enough to place in any cabinet. Although 
this set of eggs were thankfully received, 
it did not cure the desire to find an owl’s 
nest, and when the season of 1880 opened 
we still persevered until April 4, when 
passing through a hemlock grove in a de- 
serted heronry, in the town of Ellington, 
Ct., we discovered droppings and castings. 
On looking up the tree a Long-eared Owl 
{Asio Americans) left it for a short flight. 
Without stopping to think, we mounted the 
tree on a fruitless search. As soon as we 
got down the owl returned to the next 
tree, when our German companion got ex- 
cited and wanted to borrow a gun ; in fact, 
anything to get the owl. We told him to 
keep cool and we would go up the tree and 
get it for him. 
We started stealthily up the hemlock. 
The owl kept his eye on our friend 
until we got within two feet of it, when its 
head came around, and he looked us in the 
face. We moved not a muscle, but looked 
him straight in the eye, when hearing our 
friend step on a rotten stick, its head 
turned once more, and taking advantage of 
this we gently moved one branch higher, 
and with a quick movement of the right 
hand we took him from the limb. To say 
that both of us were surprised would hard- 
ly express it. The German sent up a shout 
of exultation in broken English. We 
carefully descended with our captive, and 
our German friend prepared to tie up the 
owl in his handkerchief. We examined 
it carefully, and while handing it to 
him we purposely let it go. The owl 
went off as noislessly as a butterfly and 
looked at us from another tree with a per- 
fect indifference. We left the place pleased 
with our experience but our friend had lost 
his owl and was not happy. 
April 11th. We again went to the her- 
onry and saw both owls several times. 
Climbed to several nests but found no eggs. 
April 18. Our friend went over alone 
and found both owls on one nest. They 
left it when he went near the tree. April 
25. We again went to the heronry with 
our friend, who pointed out the tree in 
which he had previously found the nest 
containing the owls. As we struck the 
tree one of the owls left the nest, and 
when we had climbed two-thirds of the 
meadow, about a mile distant; I found a 
nest April 21st in an old Cooper’s Hawk 
nest. On climbing I found three eggs, 
which were left to be hatched, for I wished 
to find the time occupied in incubation. 
ilogist. 1628. American Long-eared Owl. By A. C. Murchison. Ibid., 
190-191. — Nesting habits. Auk , Vll. Jan. 1 890 . p. frfc. 
390. American Long-eared Owl. By Chas. E. Bendire. Ibid., p. 
I 126. — Average and extremes of measurement of 37 eggs of Asio ameri- 
I canus (Sharpe). Q, &S Q» VQ< 1 » V 44 
pp. 
ill 
