The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-04
THE GREAT HORNED OWL,
Continued from Fourth Pagel

1 back into their threats and swallowing ] them whole, after the manner of birds of prey in general, shutting their eyes ! during the operation. Of course there were no pellets elected after this meal, as there was no indigestible material to eject. But after having meal of 1 Norway rats that night, they elected pellets the following afternoon.
 1 The next food the owl had was a 1 flicker, which I found dead in the woods, shot by some sneak who ran away when he heard some one coming. This the owl plucked with their bills, first pulling out the primary and tail feathers, and later some of the smaller feathers of the body. Tn the morning, all but these feathers had disappeared. The following night put dead musk rat in the cage, and the owls lost little time in attacking it. Next morning 1 about half of it, including the head, had | been eaten; the rest had been dragged l to a corner of the cage and left. As far as I could judge, none of the fur had been eaten but many tufts of it had ] been pulled out, doubtless to enable the 1 owls to get at the body beneath. On 1 tAAS ilSAI LllC dlS lllS DutGliACG | of the muslSrat, and, in addition, a half grown Norway rat. The latter they had devoured. skin and all but the muskrat they had skinned, leaving be- sides the skin, three paws and the tail. l Sometimes one of the owls would pick l up Norway rat from the bottom of the cage, and jump to the perch with it in his bill. Then he would put 1t down on the perch and grasp it with one foot, straighten up, and look away as though he had forgotten all about it. Then, in l five or ten minutes he would seem to suddenly remember it again, and talk ing it in his bill, down he would come to the floor of the cage, either to hide his prey or to presently carry 1t back to the perch and repeat the perform ance.
 The front of the cage faced 8 south ern window, of which the blinds were raised, and as I sat watching the birds at night, I several times noticed them pause abruptly in whatever they hap pened to be doing, and gaze with great 1 lntentness past me, and apparently through the window at the sky be- yond. I would follow their gaze, but all was black night to me yet 1 could not help wondering what those owls were looking at so earnestly. It was | about the time that the early spring migrants were passing. and thought it not impossible that the owls. with their wonderful powers of sight, were looking at these flying birds. This idea gained favor with me because, on several occasions, I saw the owls shift their gaze from the south window to the eastern one. as though following the movements of some object which was moving towards the north. They craned their ,necks with as much eagerness, apparently. as a man would do if he were. trying to get a look at something quickly moving out of sight.
 In the same room with the owls was a cage of mice. and it was very amusing to see what an interest the birds took in the doings of the little rodents. Whenever the latter began to stir about, the owls, if they were not very busy with something else, would edge along their perch to the corner nearest to the mice, and with intent looks follow every movement of the little quadrupeds, twisting their heads into the most absurd attitudes, in their ef- forts to get better view.
 The power of the pupils of their eyes to dilate and contract, was marvellous. l tried an experiment or two In order to see how rapidly they dilated and con. tracted on being subjected to great and little light, respectively. I plac- ed in front of the cage rather pow- erful single wick lamp, turned down very low. By the dim light could see that the black pupils of one of the owls were greatly dilated, with not more than wide line of yellow around them. Suddenly I turned up the light, and instantly the pupils con- tracted to mere soecks in the middle of the broad disk of yellow. turn ed down the light again, and immedi- ately the pupils broadened out into disks of black, with the yellow lines around them. I repeated this expert ment several times, always with the same result. Another interesting thing about it was, that when one eye was in the light and one in the dark. the pupil of the former was | was dilated. I also tried another ex- pertinent. put one owl fin a dark closet, while held the other in bright sunlight Then I suddenly opened the closet door and put the second owl in- side. In an instant his pupils dilated to correspond with the decrease of light, while those of the owl which had been shut in. contracted to meet the (to him] increase of light. Both birds had a habit oe deliberately clos ing one eye, and staring at me with the other-a sort of prolonged wink At other times they would look at me intently for several minutes and ther turn away their heads with an ap- Ipearance of utter indifference, as though they had tried hard to recognize me. but failed.
 Several times the birds had little squabbles, generally over their food and at such times. as well as when they were frightened, they uttered a tremulous or vibratory whistle rather sweet and pathetic, and having something of the quality of the water whistles which are sold on city streets. Once they had real fight using bills and feet, until I was able to stop them. At this time the whis- ting they made was louder and possi, bly, shriller than that made at other