Note 3 — Chapter II

An excellent plan of shooting these birds, and one that I have often successfully practised, is to roll up a bit of fur or cloth about the shape and size of a mouse, and drag it after you with a line twenty yards long. The owl will soon perceive the decoy, although half-a-mile distant; and after moving his head backwards and forwards as if to make sure of his object, he takes wing, and making a short sweep in the rear of his intended prey, pounces upon and seizes it in his claws, affording the sportsman a fine opportunity of knocking him down. I have sometimes missed my aim, leaving the owl to fly away with the false mouse (which the sudden jerk had torn from the line) in his claws. The Indians, taking advantage of this bird's propensity to alight on elevated spots, set up pieces of wood in the plains or marshes with a trap fastened to the top. In this way I have known as many as fifty killed in the early part of winter by one Indian. The owl is very daring when hungry. I remember seeing one of these powerful birds fix its claws in a lapdog when a few yards distant from the owner, and only let go his gripe after a gun was fired. The poor little dog died of its wounds in a few days.