Nesting of the Short-eared Owl. 
(Msio Accipitrinus ) . 
BY DR. W. S. STRODE, BERNADOTTE, ILL. 
On April 19th, 1887, I had occasion to go to 
Spoon River and three miles above town, so I 
thought I would improve the occasion by mak- 
ing the run in my boat and on the return to 
take a look for nests of the Baptores. So tak- 
ing my climbers, a hatchet and a ball of string, 
I considered myself equipped for a climb to any 
kind of a nest that might turn up. 
Throwing off my coat and vest and there not 
being much current in the river — the mill dam 
backing the water for five miles — I took the 
shady side of the stream and made my boat 
fairly flash through the clear water, arriving at 
the spot where I wished to land in forty min- 
s from starting. In returning to the boat 
after attending to my business, I noticed a sin- 
gle crow away down the river a quarter of a 
mile, that appeared to be having a camp meet- 
ing all by himself. The location was a swampy 
marsh, with a dense growth of scrub or swamp 
oak, with an undergrowth of hazel so thick 
that to 'go through it a person at times would 
have to go down on all fours. Suspecting an 
owl or a hawk to be the cause of all this fuss 
from the crow I at once started for the locality. 
Making my way for a hundred yards or so, 
I was electrified to see a Short-eared Owl, 
(Asio Accipitrinus') fly from a skeleton nest 
twelve feet up in an oak. Going up I found 
nothing in it and after thinking the matter over 
a while I concluded that this might not be the 
nest of the owl at all. After searching about 
for a short time, I came to a tree containing a 
nest at the height of about fifteen feet, and 
presently the ear tufts followed by the yellow 
eyes came up over the edge of the nest and pro- 
ceeded to size me up. 
Now, I thought, there can be no doubt about 
this being the right nest, and going to the tree 
I commenced the ascent. At the first step the 
Asio left the nest and disappeared in the thick 
brush, and I did not see either of them again 
until I had got within four feet of the nest, 
when suddenly they appeared, growling and 
caterwauling like angry Tom cats. After 
watching their strange actions for a short 
time I went on to the nest, and was almost 
struck dumb to find it entirely empty. This 
I could not understand, as the nest had every 
earance of having been occupied for a con- 
siderable time. It was composed of twigs with 
an inner lining of grape vine bark and feathers. 
Not being able to solve the problem, I turned 
to look at one of the owls that sat on a limb 
about eight feet from the ground and about 
thirty feet from me. This one, which I took to 
be the male from his coarse voice, finding him- 
self observed proceeded to treat me to a tum- 
bling feat and to play the cripple act to perfec- 
tion. Throwing himself backward he fell off 
the twig down to the ground where he rolled 
about in apparent great distress. But on my 
starting down from the nest, a transformation 
immediately came over them and they disap- 
peared quickly in the brush and I saw them no 
more. 
Sadly I returned to my boat, and during the 
trip home and for the rest of that day the query 
was constantly in my mind, why was there not 
eggs in that nest? Or if there had been what 
had become of them ? 
