Nyctala acadica . 
Concord, Mass . 
1894. feathers which I came to had floated down from some distance 
Oct. 11 
to 
Nov. 21 
(No. 2), 
above the spot where I found them. Accordingly I kept on up 
stream scanning both banks closely, a not very difficult task 
for they were nearly everywhere covered with snow. I was be- 
ginning to despair of success, however, when, on reaching the 
sharp turn just above Holden's Hill, I caught sight of a bunch 
of feathers clinging to a twig of one of the large white ma- 
ples which line the west and south bank at this bend. Pushing 
in under these trees I at once found abundant evidence that 
the Saw -whet had been picked and eaten there, but by what . 
remained as much a mystery as ever. The murderer must have 
been a bird, however, for he had chosen as a dining table a 
stout branch which extended out over the water at a height of 
about fifteen feet. This branch was smeared with blood and 
several feathers clung to it ’while many others were caught a- 
mong the button bushes beneath. On a snow bank at the water's 
edge I found still others as well as a few small fragments of 
flesh but these must have been cast down from above for the 
snow bore no signs of footprints. 
On my way down river in the morning I started a Red-tailed! 
Hawk from this very belt of maples but yet I can scarcely be- 
lieve that he was really the destroyer of the poor little Owl. 
The latter was probably caught in the maples where he was eat- 
en for Saw-whets are often found at this season in leafless 
trees on meadows or the banks of streams . 
91 
