Notes from Rehoboth, Mass. 
Barred Owl. 
PART I. RAPTORES. F £ " 
In lieu of my departed “ strain ” of 
Great-h orne d Owls I was obliged to wait 
until the blustering winds of March had 
given place to the showers of April, ere 
I could venture forth with confidence to 
reap the harvest of the next breeder, the 
Barred Owl. 
April 7th I took my trip to the usual 
haunts of these “Hooters” and first in- 
spected Long Hill Woods, where, since the 
spring of 1878, I had annually secured a 
set of their eggs from one of the old 
Hawk’s nests. A pair of screaming “ Bed 
Shoulders ” prospecting for a situation for 
their domicile, greeted me with assurances 
j of success for a future visit. I diligently 
thumped every tree that contained a nest 
and ascended to the most likely looking 
ones but no Barred Owl or eggs were found. 
I next went to the pine woods some two 
miles distant, where I also annually se- 
cured sets. Here I carefully searched for 
Strix but found nothing. 
Matters were growing serious. My dis- 
appointment was about all that I could 
bear. My last resource was Oak Swamp. 
Surely in that secluded retreat they must 
be found. 
I secured the services of a friend and we 
thoroughly hunted the swamp, looking in 
every hollow stump until we found the ob- 
ject of our search. 
In a decayed open cavity in a walnut 
tree was a Barred Owl sitting in full view. 
name* 
The nest was “not more than ten feet up in 
the tree. The Owl did not leave until the 
tree was thumped ; then only flew into the 
next tree. The set of these eggs was se- 
cured withput trouble ; incubation slight. 
Whether the Owls in the other localities 
will return next season is a question of 
much anxiety with me, for I had promised 
several friends sets of their eggs, and it 
was a matter of much chagrin to only re- 
cord one chick. 
(H-&- / X . 
The Barred Owl is the most common with 
me with the exception of the Screech Owl. 
As a winter resident it becomes quite bold 
and will often approach the house in search 
of food. This leads me to mention the 
capture of my confined bird under the 
following peculiar circumstances: In my 
museum I have an open coal grate. One 
morning while building the fire I was sur- 
prised by a Barred Owl tumbling down 
the chimney with considerable fuss and 
lack of dignity. Recovering himself he 
perched on a chair as calmly as though in 
his native wilds. - Of course his capture 
speedily followed and for two years he has 
remained in confinement, as stoical as an 
Athens judge. Nothing moves him except 
the food, which he seizes with avidity, and 
swallows with equal haste. Although rath- 
er ludicrous to watch as he sits wrajDped 
in the consciousness of his own moral dig- 
nity, yet he is less interesting to my mind 
than any of my other feathered friends. 
This being my opinion I am not quite as 
lenient with him as with the Long-eared 
Owl, and woe to the nest which comes in 
my circuit of collecting. 
My first Barred Owl’s nest well do I re- 
member. It was the first nest of any 
Owl’s or Hawk’s I had ever found, and it 
being in the beginning of my oological as- 
pirations, the next question to be solved 
was how to get it, for it was most provok- 
ingly placed in an old Fisk Hawk’s nest at 
the top of an old dead tree, smooth for 
forty feet without a limb. Climbing irons 
I had never heard of. To “ shin ” it was 
out of the question. My only resource 
J was to let them hatch, which I did. Three 
pair now breed in this vicinity. One nest 
is in the hollow of an old pine stub fifteen 
feet or so from the ground. Number two 
is in a heavy wood, where they have the' 
choice of several old Hawk’s nests, seem- 
ing not to remain only for one year in the 
same nest. Number three was placed last 
year in an old Crow’s nest, at the top of a 
