Short-eared Owl. 
In the August number of the O. and O. 
you give Mr. H. A. Kline the credit of 
giving the most interesting' information 
respecting the Short-eared Owl so far 
placed on record. You would not have 
made that assertion if Familiar Science 
had not died out when it changed hands. 
I had completed an exhaustive history of 
all the birds of prey of N. E., a part only 
of which was published in that magazine. 
My article (unpublished) on that Owl is 
full and complete. Some thirty years ago 
a nest was found some half mile from my 
office among the bogs in our meadows. 
The nest was on the top of the bog and 
composed of fine grass. It was within a 
few rods of the cart path and the bird 
could easily be seen as we passed. She 
would allow us to approach very near be- 
fore rising from her nest, would fly a few 
rods and then hop along in the grass 
snapping her mandibles. There were four 
eggs in the nest. She was captured by 
placing a snare over the nest attached to 
■o a long cord. When she returned a sud- 
^ den twitch on the line secured the bird. 
^ I took her some half mile from the nest 
and let her go. She flew directly back to 
her nest. I suppose on her passage north 
to breed she was wounded and laid her 
clutch of eggs here. She had no mate 
and the eggs never hatched. I could not 
discover any signs of injury from examin- 
ing her, or in her flight. — Win, Wood. 
The Short-eared Owl played the same 
game as the Barred. For years past they 
have bred in a small patch of rank “has- 
sock grass ” in a corner of a salt meadow. 
This year a friend desiring their eggs I di- 
rected him to the locality. As the result 
of several hours’ patient search he reported 
nothing. A few weeks later a gunner, 
spring shooting for Plover, found their 
nest and young at the side of the marsh. 
There must be some reason for such a 
general change of breeding resorts which 
remains to be determined. 
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Rapfcores, Bristol County, Mass. 
Hilton B. Bead. 
Short-eared Owl (Asio accipitrinus') . With the 
exception of a few, sometimes shot on the. salt 
marshes in the southern section of the county, 
in the autumn, I can note no occurrence of this 
species within our limits. They have been 
found breeding in a salt meadow in an adjoin- 
ing and similar named county in Rhode Island. 
Their nests having been found by Mr. F. H. 
Carpenter and as I had the pleasure of accom- 
panying him to the locality, perhaps a descrip- 
tion would be of interest. 
In a corner of a salt . marsh, of large, extent, 
was a patch of rank grass and low bushes. In 
this place, after diligent tramping, on the morn- 
ing of April 28, 1879, we flushed a Short-eared 
Owl from her nest on a “hummock”, where by 
gathering together old reeds, she had “raised” 
her dwelling above the flow of the tide, which 
sometimes flooded the meadow to a depth of 
a few inches. The nest contained five eggs of 
same shape as those of Aamericanus , but some- 
what smaller. 
O & O. XII. Aug. 1887 p 11? 
New Eng. Rapfcores. Number Eggs in 
a set. F. H. Carpenter. 
Short-eared Owl, ( Asio accipitrinus). 
4 sets of 5 
o & O. XII. Oct. 1887 p. 168 
Collection of Raptores Egss. J-.P.N. 
: Short-earecl Owl, _ 1 
O.&O. XV. Apr. 1890. p. 53 
