7 
NOTES ON BIRDS IN CONFINEMENT . 
Nyctea nyctea. 
The body was plump, the internal organs all apparently heal- 
thy. Death probably caused by blood poisoning resulting from 
a gun-shot wound in the side. The existence of such a wound 
was not demonstrate;!, but one of the wing-bones showed a re- 
cently healed fracture indicating that the bird had been 
shot. The ovaries were distinctly granulated some of the o- 
vules as large as number 12 shot. It now seems probable 
that this bird's tameness and sluggish, sedate behavior has 
been due, not to any normal peculiarity of temperament, but 
simply to the fact that she has been ailing ever since she 
came into my possession. 
March _26 . — — 
snake into the 
rectly towards 
Put three spotted turtles and a garter- 
Owl cage. One of the turtles crawled di- 
Boreas who promptly pounced on it, striking 
it twice with great force, but failing to make any impres- 
sion on its smooth shell from which the claws glanced as 
polished marble. The bird was at first bewildered, 
frightened, and afterwards flew whenever one of the tur- 
approached. At the end of one of hi s flights he a- 
accident, directly on the snake, pressing 
soles of his feet, standing with his claws 
grasping it. The snake, extended at 
from 
then 
ties 
lighted, quite by 
it down under the 
protruded and not 
length on the floor. 
full 
remained perfectly still for some time, 
then began to wriggle and twine about the Owl's legs. The 
latter again showed unmi stakeable surprise and after a moo- 
ment's hesitation, flew off. Nothing happened for the next 
fifteen minutes -at the end of which I left the cellar. Re- 
turning an hour later, I found the snake gone, the Owl sit- 
ting on one of the perches regarding the turtles with evi- 
dent distrust. I do not think he ate the snake, which prob- 
ably crawled through the wire mesh and concealed itself a- 
mong the barrels and boxes in the cellar. ,/ 
Y'CAj'O IaS~LkJA/) LcMZ l / C\Z jlX-X*. ti. 
March 2o . The turtles all alive and unharmed, but the 
Owl no longer afraid of them. I put a trap cage containing 
four live rats about one quarter grown on the floor in the 
Owl's favorite corner. The bird soon alighted near the cage 
and regarded it curiously, oscillating his head, but he did 
not attempt to pounce on the rats during the fifteen minutes 
