THE CONDOR I Vol. III occasional specimens being spotted lightly. I must also mention that the Mountain Chickadee is possessed of a soft and very musical song, although it does not seem to be uttered nearly so frequently as the common-place chick-a dee-dee. This song consists of four notes, two being given in the same high key while the last two drop perhaps half way down the scale. To my no- tion it is very similar to the song of the Golden-crowned Sparrow, but judging from the recent discussion of the latter's song in this journal, I fear that many Californians will have to observe trichia coronata closely hefore they can appreciate my comparison of songs. Alma's lhrush in Colorado. M R/HARRY C. OBERHOI,SER in the Auk Oct. ?898 describes this'new thrush and says: Mon- tana, Colorado and Texas have both swainsoni and almce during migration. He gives lists of specimens from Colo- rado as follows; Clear Creek, Twin Lakes, Denver nd Colorado Springs. I collected a male May 2oth, ?9oo. It was in company with several others in a clump of cottonwoods along a small branch of the Poudre River inside the city limits of Fort Collins. The day was cloudy with a fine drizzling rain that had set in the night before making everything dripping wet but that did not dampen their spirits as they were singing as only a thrush can sing. They were very shy keeping among the leaves in the topmost branches, and it was with difficulty I secured one. Dr. A. K. Fisher kindly identified it for file. Prof. Cooke's list and first appendix to same were published before Mr. 0ber- holser described it, but in his second appendix published May ?9oo, by some oversight he omitted it. WILLIAM I4, BURNETT, Fort Col/ins, Colo.
E00s From American Barn 0wls in Cap-
tivity. T THE Northern Division meet- ing in Alanleda May 7, x898 a paper entitled "The American Barn Owl in Captivity" by myself was read, describing a brood of downy owlets recently taken, and their habits in confinement. As a sequel I will fur- nish a few other notes concerning the later life of the three survivors. After their plumage was well formed I decid- ed that the box in which they were raised was too s?nall for them, so fenced off a space under a pigeon house, whose floor was six feet from the ground. A shed and fence on two sides of the cage, which was about ten feet square, shut out considerable light. The floor was dry and sandy and two nail kegs were nailed up close to the roof and slanted downward toward the bottom. Then I had considerable difficulty in transferring the owlets into a sack. They fought viciously at my gloved hand with beaks and talons. If they had been handled daily from infancy I doubt if their wildness or ferocity could have been overcome, except to that cer- tain degree which is influenced by hunger and habit of forced observation on the attendant's movements. When first liberated in this enclosure they flop- ped about wildly, hissing in evident ter- ror, and finally flopped into one of the nail kegs. After this they were not in- truded upon for some days but always made a physical commotion, beating about the cage, at my entrance. During the day they remained quiet but at dusk began their hisses. This hiss of voluntary origin was unlike the hiss caused by their defensive attitude, both in sound and intervals of frequency. A pail of water was set into the enclos- ure but I could not determine that they had much use for it either as a bever- age or an ablution. No live rodents were ever served with their menu, because there were very few about the yard at this time,
