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Jan., 1'?11 A IIISTOR ()F CERTAIN GREAT IIORNI.?I) OWLS 17 helper this time, literally stood guard over me as, with camera close to the ground, I stooped under the focusing cloth. Except, for his full-voiced yells and well- aimed sticks I am sure my position would have been utterly untenable. The last try for pictures, when the young were placed on the old stump a few feet to the east of the big ehn, did not pass off so smoothly. Whether the city friend who had become interested in the proceedings and who was this time trusted as my body guard was less effective with voice and missiles than he should have been or whether the owls no longer feared an ordinary demonstration, it would be hard to say. Two of the youngsters were already on the oak stump and I was somewhere aloft in quest of the third. Presumably I was either just reaching over the nest rim for the last snapping owlet or else had just started down with him. My memory has never been clear on the point nor was my excited friend ever able Fig. 12. APRIL 22,'_1907; A FRONTAL VIE?'; TI,I,'O DAVS LATER ALL W'ERE IN THE TREE TOPS to elucidate fully. At any rate my position for the moment must have been strategically bad. The sharp cry "Look out!" barely gave me time to duck my head, when a resounding whack was administered across my shoulders. This was not damaging, but the returu stroke would come quickly and doubtless be better placed. It came and I ducked again, but not quite far enough, or possibly not at exactly the riglit instant. The shock was profound. The list bf damages showed three scalp wounds from an inch to nearly three inches in length, while my cap had disappeared entirely from the scene. This was later found under a tree some hundred yards to the south, a punctured souvenir of our last intimate contact with the Great Horned Owls. After each sitting the young were replaced in the nest and two days after the stormy last one, on April 24, the house was found empty and the family was in the