April i, iqii.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
493 
1,000 feet from shore 
eating mussels. It would 
dive through the crack 
and after a little while 
reappear with a mussel. 
Sometimes it dived five 
and six times before se¬ 
curing one. It would 
then sit up on its 
haunches, holding the 
mussel in its paws, and, 
by much clawing and 
chewing, finally succeed 
in opening the shell and 
removing the meat, 
which it usually licked 
out quite clean. In some 
cases the muskrat failed 
to get the shell open. 
Usually the shells are 
but little or not at all 
broken; even the hinge 
still holds and the sheils 
are scarcely injured. It 
is our observation that 
the muskrat, by insert¬ 
ing its claws or teeth 
between the valves 
succeeds in cutting or 
tearing loose the ad¬ 
ductor muscles so as to permit the valves to 
spring open. Another muskrat was observed 
further out on the same crack, a long distance 
from shore, and the ice along the crack between 
the two was pretty thickly strewn with shells. 
The muskrats apparently do not care so much 
for mussel gills filled with eggs or glochidia, 
as these were usually rejected. The stomach of 
a muskrat examined at Washington, D. C., late 
in the spring was found well filled with mussel 
remains. Muskrats also feed to a considerable 
extent on fish, crawfish and frogs. We have on 
more than one occasion found partly devoured 
fish at their feeding stations, and remains of 
fish, frogs and crustaceans in their kitchenmid- 
dens. We have never seen a muskrat catch a 
live fish, but have no doubt they do so. They 
certainly pick up freshly dead fish which they 
chance to find.” 
Nest of a Great Horned Owl. 
Along the creek just above Branchport, N. Y., 
there used to be a little pine grove where the 
crows aiways nested, and a flicker or a little 
screech owl had a nest in one or the other of 
two tall elm stubs that stuck up skyward through 
the pines. 
As we were passing through this grove, May 
2, 1909, our attention was drawn by the number 
of crow and pheasant feathers on the ground, 
and looking up we at once saw the cause. A 
pair of great-horned owls had pre-empted an old 
crow’s nest and there sat the female on the 
nest. But when she saw that she was discovered, 
she left, and was soon joined by her mate, and 
both flew from tree to tree and were very much 
excited. They were soon discovered by a crow, 
which set up a great cry, and its fellows began 
to come from all directions until there were 
fifty or sixty of them, and all talked at once. 
Occasionally a crow would dive at an owl, and 
if the owl made a move they would all talk 
faster than ever until there was a perfect bed¬ 
WHAT WAS FOUND UNDER THE OWL'S NEST. 
lam of sound, and it called the crows from all 
the country round. 
On the ground under the nest was a pheasant’s 
leg, a rabbit’s leg and a headless young rabbit 
and lots of crow and pheasant feathers. 
Climbing to the nest we found it to contain 
two downy young owls about two weeks old, 
also the greater part of a ring-necked pheasant 
and the rump and legs of a crow. No wonder 
that crows hate and pester owls. 
I visited the nest again on May 6 and got a 
good picture of the young owls. This time the 
nest contained the hind parts of a Virginia rail 
and under the nest on the ground was a female 
pheasant's head. 
My observations show that this owl always 
.eats the head of its victim first, as every animal 
or bird that I ever found in one of its nests 
was headless. In one nest I found the legs and 
feet of two crows, the rump and legs of another 
crow, a crow with the head and breast gone, 
the hind parts of a rat and the hind parts of a 
rabbit. Quite a varied bill of fare. This nest 
YOUNG HORNED OWLS. 
contained but a single 
young one, about one 
week old. When climb¬ 
ing to the nest the owl 
flew at me, striking me 
forcibly on the arm, and 
had I not had a good 
hold on a limb I should 
have been knocked from 
the tree. As it was, 
there were six claw 
marks on my arm which 
drew blood, and these 
were made through a 
heavy coat, shirt and 
heavy undershirt. I then 
broke a dead limb from 
the tree and kept close 
watch of the bird. She 
flew at me several times 
crying, “Wock, wock, 
wock,” and I had to 
dodge behind the tree to 
keep her from striking 
me. The last time as I 
dodged she struck the 
stick and went tumbling 
nearly to the ground, but 
recovering, managed to 
reach a limb on a near¬ 
by tree where she sat blinking and chuckling 
for a few moments, then silently left the woods 
and was seen no more. Verdi Burtch. 
Flamingoes in New England. 
In Forest and Stream of Feb. 4 was printed 
an account of a flamingo seen on Long Island, 
and again on Feb. 11 John Lewis Childs, of 
Floral Park, N. Y., related that he had a flamingo 
which had flown against a telephone wire and 
was found exhausted in the snow. The skin is 
now in Mr. Childs’ possession. The printing of 
the article of Feb. 4 called forth a letter from 
Dr. G. M. Minor, of Waterford, Conn., which 
told of a flamingo shot by a gunner in Rhode 
Island in November. This seemed so extra¬ 
ordinary that at our request Dr. Minor made 
further inquiry and sent us the results as re¬ 
ported to him by a friend in Charlestown, R. I. 
The essential part of this report is as follows: 
“This bird is a real flamingo and was shot by 
Charles Cashman on Nov. 23, 1911, in Trustum 
pond, and this is the description that I got: 
Height to top of back, 34 inches; length of neck, 
27 inches; tip to tip of wings, 5 feet 6 inches; 
color of wings, scarlet with black edges; length 
of body, 21 inches; color of back and neck very 
light pink; color of legs, scarlet; color of bill, 
pink and black. 
‘‘Mr. Cashman has the bird mounted and it 
is worth seeing. He told me that there were 
two of them and he got the female or at least 
thinks he did, as the other one had a black stripe 
the whole length of its back.” 
The mention of the black stripe down the back 
seems an error of observation. 
This letter, with what has previously been pub¬ 
lished on the subject, seems to show that last 
autumn three flamingoes were at large on the 
New England coast. G. D. Tilley, of Darien, 
Conn., says that it is impossible to tell just how 
many flamingoes escaped from his preserve last 
fall; that he had a large number on hand at 
