12 THE CONDOR Vol. XlIl owlets as they were scrambling along the ground and evidently still unable to fly. The girls reported the strange creatures to a hired man who was temporarily ill the neighborhood and he hunted up the "varmints" and clubbed them to death. The real neighbors of the owls would not have done this. They were all interested iu the big birds aud all reported that their large flocks of chickens had uot suffered from their presence. A further word should be added ou the behavior of the adult birds during the first season. With two of us at the nest their demonstrations, although energetic enough, never proved dangerous. Both birds merely came near, flying back and forth' [at distances varying from thirty to a hundred feet, snappiug their mandibles, ruffiiug their feathers, and hooting out vigorous protests. It was different when one person was.'at the_nest alone. On April 28 I had arrived at the Fig. 8. MARCH 30, 1907; THE BEGINNINGS OF INTELLIGENCE; O?VLE'['S EIGH'I'EEN
to 'rw?v-'rwo nays o?
old elm about twenty miuutes ahead of Mr. Burge aud. standing on tile next to the top round of a twenty-foot ladder, was making some examination of the young aud the other contents of tile nest cavity. 'rile ladder necessarily stood as nearly vertical as possible to reach the cavity at all and, as tile big tree was about five feet ill dia- meter just below the hollow, the hold was uone too secure. Fortunately a small horizontal branch shot out from the heavy trunk ou the uortheast side aud against this tile top three inches of the ladder found some support. Without this I dislike to think what might have happeued when that stunning blow came iu from the south quarter. It came absolutely unexpected aud was so violent as to leave the left side of my head quite uumb. With my haud I discovered that blood was running down my cheek and a quick glance around showed my assailant stepplug
