. Familiar life in field and forest; the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders . THE LENTIGINOSIS. The stake-driver is at it again onhis favorite meadow. STRANGE CREATURES WITH STRANGE VOICES. 99 meadows of Grafton County, K H., and I know thatlie makes the noise when there is not a bit of waterin his vicinity. BradfordTorrey records a most inter-esting performance of a bit-tern which he witnessed incompany with Mr. WalterFaxon,* and he declares thatthe bird was perched onthe dry remnants of an oldhaystack. He furthermoresays the sounds are not en-tirely caused by an exertion
. Familiar life in field and forest; the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders . THE LENTIGINOSIS. The stake-driver is at it again onhis favorite meadow. STRANGE CREATURES WITH STRANGE VOICES. 99 meadows of Grafton County, K H., and I know thatlie makes the noise when there is not a bit of waterin his vicinity. BradfordTorrey records a most inter-esting performance of a bit-tern which he witnessed incompany with Mr. WalterFaxon,* and he declares thatthe bird was perched onthe dry remnants of an oldhaystack. He furthermoresays the sounds are not en-tirely caused by an exertionof the vocal organs, but areconnected in some way withthe distention of the cropand the drawing in of thebreath, not the throwing ofit out after the crop is full. In the dim twilight suc-ceeding a warm day in springanother strange but familiar note comes across themeadow from the edge of the bordering wood, andwe recognize at once the hoot of an owl. It is abarytone note, and from its depth and freedom from. The Great Horned Owl. * The Auk, vol. vi, p. 1. 100 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. a quivering, weird quality (familiar in the screech-owls notes), we can be sure it comes from one of thelarger owls. It is, in fact, the voice of the greathorned owl (Bubo virginianus\ a big, brown-and-ocher-colored bird, mottled with black, and remark-able for his tufted ears, the conspicuous feathers onwhich stand out fully two inches beyond the contourof his head. Mr. Frank M. Chapman calls this owl, just asmany another ornithologist does, a tiger amongbirds. The creature is a terror to small birds, poul-try, squirrels, mice, and rabbits. But he is not quiteso destructive to the inmates of the henhouse as he ismade out to be. On the average, not more than oneowl in four steals a chicken; all the others feed onmice, moles, and other such harmful creatures whichlive on the farm. One of the first voices of spring is that of thehorned owl; it is not a cheerful one, but it is a pre-sage of
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