Nyctala acadica. Upper Megalloway River, Maine. 1898. Still later (after supper in camp) something flitted by Sept.20. just within the extreme outer circle of light from the camp fire. It looked like a large bird but just beyond the spot where I had lost sight of it I came suddenly face to face with a Saw-whet Owl. He was perched on a drooping spray of arbor vitae scarce six feet above the ground and within five feet of my head, balancing himself gracefully with half-opened wings. Such a pretty, alert little creature, as unlike as possible to the grotesque, blinking birds we find dozing by day in our Massachusetts woods. I wish I could have had a better look at him but the moment after I discovered him he took flight again and brushing close past me flitted back to- wards the camp apparently alighting nearly over it although I failed to find him again.