Nyctala acadica 
Concord, Mass. 
1894 Another and very curious experience connected with an 
| Oct. 11 Owl befell me November 13th. I had spent the day at Ball's 
to 
Nov. 21. Hill, as usual, and was pushing off in the canoe to return to 
Concord when I noticed a great number of feathers floating on 
the river. One of my men who had been at work on the shore 
said that he had hot iced them passing for half-an-hour or 
more. During this time there had not been a breath of wind 
| 
and they had merely drilled slowly with the current. As I 
looked I could see them as far as the eye could reach both up 
and down stream not scattered about but forming a nearly 
straight and rather narrow line. 
Paddling out I picked up a number of them and found that 
they had belonged to a Saw-whet Owl. They had come from every 
part of the bird including the wings and tail. Many of the 
body feathers were in bunches - a dozen or more together. 
This trail of feathers was as easily followed as the paper 
11 scent used in the game of hare and hounds but it stopped 
. 
abruptly at the foot of the Beaver Dam Rapid. There was a 
large musk rat house on the bank at this place and at first X 
suspected that the little Owl had been plucked there but upon 
examining the mound carefully I failed to find so much as a 
single feather. I then decided that the plucking operation 
must have ceased some time before I started and that the last 
