The Useful Barn Owl. 
Westchester, Pa., Nov. 2.— Editor Forest and‘ 
Stream: The number of mice destroyed by a 
brood of barn owls would seem almost incredi¬ 
ble to anyone not familiar with their habits. 
I recently visited a large hollow tree that has 
long been the home of a pair of these birds, and 
where they have annually raised a brood of 
young. The accompanying photograph was taken 
at the foot of the tree, a large isolated black 
oak. The bones shown are those of the com¬ 
mon held or meadow mouse that does so much 
damage to vegetation, especially when the ground 
is deeply covered with snow. 
Then they live on grass roots 
and the tender bark of young 
fruit trees, which are frequent¬ 
ly destroyed by their ravages. 
Under this tree are scattered 
thousands of mice skulls which, 
with other indigestible ma¬ 
terial, have been ejected in the 
pellets disgorged by these owls. 
As a further proof of the 
entire beneficence of these 
birds, not a single feather 
could be found among the 
debris. 
Could these owls only be 
allowed to increase sufficiently 
they would prove a remedy 
for many of the ills that beset 
the agriculturist through their 
destruction of some of his 
worst enemies. 
Barn owls generally locate 
their nests along the edge of 
a meadow or field where the 
field mouse most abounds, and 
the number of these little 
pests they will destroy while 
feeding a brood of six to eight' 
young, each of which con¬ 
sumes almost its weight of 
food in twenty-four hours is 
almost beyond belief. 
Thomas H. Jackson. 
f? 
FIELD MOUSE SKULLS AND BONES AT THE FOOT OF A LARGE BLACK OAK TREE IN 
WHICH A BARN OWL ROOSTED. 
Photograph by T. H. Jackson. 
Lived on Seal Oil and Leather. 
Mr. Vifiljamr Stefannson and Dr. Rudolph 
Anderson, who are in charge of the American 
Museum of Natural History’s Arctic expedition 
for ethnological and zoological investigation, have 
not been heard of for some time, but are no 
doubt hard at work. 
The struggles that they have had in their 
efforts to live upon the country have been severe, 
but they have abundant courage and abundant 
po. A letter received some time ago by the 
Director of the Museum tells the story of fifteen 
days’ travel up the Horton River, in December, 
1909. It says: 
"On the whole trip we killed five ptarmigan 
and not a single rabbit, though one of us hunted 
each bank of the river all the way up. The sun 
was gone and' so the daylight was meager; be¬ 
sides, it blew a blizzard every day. The whale 
tongue was very bad eating; it had little to it 
but dry fibers and was strongly impregnated with 
sea salts. When we had finished this we were 
really better off, for the stuff seemed to make 
tis sick. We then ate sealskin, some deer skins 
we had along for sole leather, and our snowshoe 
lashings, and in fact pretty near every edible 
thing except our clothes. When we began get¬ 
ting hungry we had cached all but our barest 
necessaries—the clothes we wore and our bed¬ 
ding. Had we had our spare clothes along we 
would have eaten some of them probably. For¬ 
tunately we had enough seal oil. With about a 
teacupful of oil a day one does not feel in the 
least hungry (properly speaking), but gets lazy, 
sleepy and weak. The skins, etc., we ate, not 
because we were feeling hungry, but deliberately 
to keep up our strength. All of us found it a 
little difficult to take the oil ‘straight’—we 
soaked it up in tea leaves, deer skin with long 
hair on it, or ptarmigan feathers.” 
Northern Range of the White Goat. 
New York City, Oct. 31. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: When Charles Sheldon was preparing 
his very interesting paper on the "Range of the 
Mountain Goat,” which was published in Forest 
and Stream, for June 25, I was unable to find 
for him the letter of W. J. McLean. I was un¬ 
able to quote the precise terms in which Mr. 
McLean stated his knowledge of the presence of 
the white goat north of the Liard River, in the 
main chain of the Rockies, extending as far 
north as the latitude of Fort Simpson. 
Recently I have found Mr. McLean's letter, 
and although late in the day it may even yet be 
of some interest. You will notice that it does 
not vouch for the existence of the white goat 
up to the latitude of Fort Simpson up to the 
present day, but Mr. McLean seems quite posi¬ 
tive regarding the presence of the animal from 
1863 to 1873, and he seems to have the identity 
of the mountain goat well in mind, so that he 
does not confuse it with the white sheep. 
W. T. Hornaday. 
[copy.] 
Winnipeg, Man., Feb. 19, 190b. 
Dear Mr. Clark: 
Re the information which 
W. T. Hornaday is desirous 
of obtaining in connection with 
the Rocky Mountain goat, and 
the regions in which it is to 
be found, I may state that dur¬ 
ing the ten years I was sta¬ 
tioned at Fort Liard (say 
from 1863 to 1873), the white 
goat with the upright black 
sharp-pointed horns was to be 
found abundantly, to my 
knowledge, in the mountains 
extending from Fort Halkett 
northerly as far as west of 
Fort Simpson on the McKen¬ 
zie River. I have no knowl¬ 
edge of any other species of 
goat existing in the region 
which I have mentioned, and 
I do not think that there are 
any. Yours very truly, 
(Signed) W. J. McLean. 
William Clark, Esq., 
Hudson's Bay Company, 
Winnipeg, Man. 
Birds of Australia. 
Messrs. Witherby & , Co., 
of London, have issued a prospectus and speci¬ 
men plate of an important work on Australian 
birds which they are about to issue. It is to be 
a series of eight handsome royal quarto volumes; 
to be issued in parts at two guineas each, five 
parts to complete Volume I., which deals with 
the emus, quails, pigeons, rails and grebes. Some 
of the other volumes will contain but three parts. 
The work is limited to 300 numbered sets and 
fifty extra unnumbered copies will be printed for 
those who desire any particular volumes which 
may be subscribed for separately. 
It is seventy years since John Gould made his 
expedition to Australia and published his great 
work on its mammals and birds. This has long 
been out of print and is inaccessible to most 
students. Gregory M. Mathews is now preparing 
the work on the "Birds of Australia,” which 
will be absolutely brought down to date and will 
