Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-03-19
Children Cry for
Pitchers Castoria.
HUNTING WITH OWLS.

A Naturalist's Story of Two Birds Called
Fluffy and Puffy.
Mr.. Frank Bolles contri butes to the
AUX very entertaining story of two
barred owls, Fluffy and Puffy, which he
took from the nest and brought up in
captivity. Soon after their capture
Puffy accidentally injured one of his
wings and was never afterward able to
fy. Contrary to their owners expecta-
tions it soon appeared that they could
not only see we'll in the strongest sun
light, but could not see at all in the
dark.
While watching any thing which in
terests them they throw their heads far
forward and then swing them about
like signal lanterns, or wave them
back and forth and up and down, as if
seeking the clearest- avenue of vision.
This trick, Mr.. Bolles thinks, is prob
ably due to their ancestors habit of
peering through thick branches in
search of prey.
Puffy, the injured bird, is quite will
ing to be carried about perched on a
short stick. and Mr.. Bolles has found
him really valuable assistance in his
ornithological studies. He has only to
take Puffy out with him, and every
bird in the woods comes near to look
at and jeer at its hereditary enemy.
Sat first" he says, lit was not easy to
induce Puffy to leave his cage and &C
company me, but after few lessons he
consented to step from his perch upon
the short pine stick on which l used to
carry him, and to remain clinging to it
while l walked or ran, scrambled over
lodges, or forced my way through thick
cts and bramblcs.
I'm the woods if / held him too near
a tempting log or projecting branch he
would hop off. Sometimes he would
weary of my walking, and. jumping to
| the ground, would scurry away to cover
| and snap his beak angrily if I poked
his perch in toward him and told him to
| get on AS the summer wore on, he
grew more and more obedient and less
inclined to nip my fingers on the sly as
he had way of doing when 1 first car
| ried him about.
''Sometimes l would leave the owl in
comparatively open ground on a bowl
der in pasture. or a stump in a
meadow. Then his favorite position,
was With his head tipped directly back
ward and his eyes, half closed, fixed
| either on the sun or spot not ten de-
grees from it.
4 never could fully understand this
| attitude, but l soon found that the owl
was keenly alive to any thing passing
skyward, for if hawk or a crow came
into view far away in the deep blue,
Pufy's gaze was instantly turned full
upon the growing speck, the eyelids
partly closed and most intent look
coming into his eyes.
again and again Puffy has seen
hawks or gulls overhead which nv eyes,
although unusually far-sighted, have at
first been unable to discern. On one
eventful day he showed me three hun
dred and thirty-four hawks sailing
southwest under the pressure of a stiff
northeast gale. 1t was September 10,
one of the days when fires were raging
among the forests along the St John
river.
ssThe hawks were most of them flying
very high. l think Puffy saw every one
of them. 1t mattered not whether they
came singly or in punches of twenty tc
forty, his ever-ready eye was upon them
as soon as they came into view