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“ 353-356 That even international jealousy should •‘question 
S' origin” surpasses belief. Henry W. Haynes. 
Boston, Feb. 16. 
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Birds in Severe Cold Weather. 
During the recent severe cold weather, as one of the high -school 
students was on his way through the belfry of the building to 
hoist the weather signals, he discovered a small bronze owl perched 
above one of the windows. It had evidently been drawn thither 
bv the heat from the chimneys and pigeons which frequent the 
ventilators. On being captured by the janitor, on the day follow- 
ing the bird made no resistance. It was put into a cage, o 
kept for the zoology class. It lived but one brief day, and it was 
found to be emaciated and evidently died of weakness and sheer 
exhaustion. The taxidermist who stuffed it said that it was on y 
one of a large number recently brought to him as victims of the 
cold spell. Many were found frozen in barns, and had been 
driven by the cold from the woods to the city. 
Lar^e numbers of snow-birds, crows, as well as English spar- 
rows "were hovering about grain elevators, the glass works, and 
other similar buildings for warmth and food all through the cold 
period. The gathering of birds about warm chimneys, etc., in 
such large numbers was something unusual. ^ ^ Whitney. 
Binghamton, N.Y. 
The Mottled Owl as a Fisherman. — On November 29, 1876, I 
took from a Mottled Owl’s hole ( Scops asio ) the hinder half of a Woodcock 
( Philoliela minor). Within two weeks after I took two Owls from the same 
hole, and on the 19th of January last I had the good fortune to take an- 
other. After extracting the Owl I put in my hand to see what else there 
was of interest, and found sixteen Horned Pouts ( Amiurus atrarius ), four 
of which were alive. When it occurred to me that all the ponds in the 
vicinity were under at least two feet of snow and ice, I could scarcely conjec- 
ture where the Horned Pouts could have been captured. After visiting all 
the ponds, I found they had most probably been captured in one fully a mile 
away, where some boys had been cutting holes through the ice to catch 
pickerel bait. The Owl probably stationed himself by the edge of the 
hole and seized the fish as they came to the surface. What a busy time he 
must have had flying thirty-two miles after sixteen Horned Pouts ! I may 
also state in this connection that I once found the ground under a Great 
Horned Owl’s nest ( Bubo virginianus ) literally strewn with fish-bones. — 
A. M. Frazar, W atertown, Mass. Bull. N. Q. 0. 2, July, 1877 , fO ■ 
r liiE Screech Owl. — Noticing the item in April O. and 
O. by II. J. Tozer, “ Woodpecker and Owl” and his query: 
“ Do Screech Owls oft3n attack a bird as large as the Red- 
headed Woodpecker ? ” reminds me of a little circum- 
stance occurring to one of my neighbors— he is a reliable 
and very observing man, especially of birds. He found 
one of his hens under the roosting place one morning dead, 
killed by a mink he thought, but was unable to make any 
discoveries pointing to the detection of the depredator. The 
following night, just at dusk, his attention was attracted by 
a great commotion among his fowls in the roost. Hasten- 
ing there he found one of the hens on the floor apparently 
in a death struggle. He perceived something attached to 
her neck which he supposed to be a weazel, the light being 
too indistinct to distinguish. In desperation he seized the 
thing in his hands and found it to be a small Screech Owl 
with its claws firmly fixed in the neck of the hen just back of 
the head, so firmly that he had considerable difficulty in disen- 
gaging them. In a moment the owl lay beside the dead 
hen, and the contrast was so remarkable that scales were 
brought into requisition and weights determined. The hen 
was a great fat five pounder— but the owl was a poor little 
attenuated starveling and only weighed four ounces. 
If any one imagines a Screech Owl destitute of muscle 
let him try a “ grip ” with one— I think once will suffice for 
the most skeptical — I have had experience. I once observed 
a Golden- winged Woodpecker making an excavation in a 
decayed oak near me — watched its completion — assisted 
the entrance a little with my knife and secured the eggs. 
Passing the spot the succeeding spring I put my hand in the 
nest, and finding a lot of feathers, I was about to remove 
them when something with points like a needle and power 
like a vice closed on one of my fingers, the two points 
seemed to go from opposite sides of that finger till they 
met in the middle with a power and rapidity too great to 
describe. I let go of that fellow quicker than he was wil- 
ling to let go of me, and haven’t cared to try another grip 
with an owl since. — J. JV. Clark , Old Saybrook , Conn. 
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In answer to the query by R. J. Tozer in April O. and O. 
would say that I have repeatedly found portions of Flickers 
in the holes frequented by Screech Owls and presumed it 
to be their work. Is it not for this reason that the Pigeon 
Woodpecker often chooses a tree that has two holes leading 
into the cavity ? I have more than once discovered a 
Flicker in a hole and had him escape by going out through 
another. A Screech Owl once ate the heads off three 
Quails (dead ones) devouring all, even to the bills, which I 
found by dissection. I also found the remains of a Jay in 
a cavity in a tree. The Screech Owl is a powerful little owl 
and doubtless can make it uncomfortable for larger birds 
than Flickers and Red-heads.— F. T. Jencks. 
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