One afternoon I amused myself by watching a barred owl (Strix nebulosa) sitting on one of the lower dead limbs of a white pine, close to the trunk, in broad daylight, I standing within a rod of him. He could hear me when I moved and cronched the snow with my feet, but could not plainly see me. When I made most noise he would stretch out his neck, and erect his neck feathers, and open his eyes wide; but their lids soon fell again, and he began to nod. I too felt a slumberous influence after watching him half an hour, as he sat thus with his eyes half open, like a cat, winged brother of the cat. There was only a narrow slit left between their lids, by which be preserved a pennisular relation to me; thus, with half-shut eyes, looking out from the land of dreams, and endeavoring to realize me, vague object or mote that interrupted his visions. At length, on some louder noise or my nearer approach, he would grow uneasy and sluggishly turn about on his perch, as if impatient at having his dreams disturbed; and when he launched himself off and flapped through the pines, spreading his wings to unexpected breadth, I could not hear the slightest sound from them. Thus, guided amid the pine boughs rather by a delicate sense of their neighborhood than by sight, feeling his twilight way, as it were, with his sensitive pinions, he found a new perch, where he might in peace await the dawning of his day.
（　徐迟译）有一个下午，我饶有兴味地观察一个有条纹的猫头鹰（学名Strix nebulosa），它坐在一株白松的下面的枯枝上，靠近了树干，在光天化日之下，我站在离它不到一杆的地方，当我移动时，步履踏在雪上的声音，它可以听到的，可是它看不清我。我发出了很大的声音来，它就伸伸脖子，竖起了它颈上的羽毛，睁大了眼睛；可是，立刻它又把眼皮阖上了，开始点头打瞌睡了。这样观察了半个小时之后，我自己也睡意蒙眬起来，它半开眼睛地睡着，真像一只猫，它是猫的有翅膀的哥哥。眼皮之间，它只开一条小缝，这样它和我保持了一个半岛形的关系；这样，从它的梦的土地上望我，极力想知道我是谁，是哪个朦胧的物体，或是它眼睛中的一粒灰尘在遮住它的视线。最后，或许是更响的声音，或许是我更接近了它使它不安了，在丫枝上蹒跚地转一个身，好像它的美梦被扰乱了，它颇不以为然；而当它展翅飞了起来，在松林中翱翔的时候，它的翅膀是出人意料地展开得很大，可我一点儿声音也听不到。就这样，它似乎不是用视觉，而是用感觉，在松枝之间缭绕，仿佛它那羽毛都有感觉一样，在阴暗之中，它找到了一个新的枝头，飞了上去，栖息在上面，在那儿它可以安静地等待他的一天的黎明了。
　　1. in broad daylight，译“大白天”就可以，译“光天化日”，语气太强烈了，且有点偏于比喻义。刘洁修《汉语成语考释词典》说：“后来用[光天化日]，形容太平盛世。多就坏人坏事得不到包庇纵容的社会条件而言。”
2. There was only a narrow slit left between their lids, by which be preserved a pennisular relation to me，这里的pennisular应该是peninsular之误。就如上面十几行处，有wading to the tops of the highest bills，其中bills 乃hills之误。这种把h看作b的错误，前面已经出现过数次了，很有趣，但第一次碰到时，却让人脑子枉费了很久（rack in vain）。
“保持了一个半岛形的关系”仍令人费解。Dr. Ross 解释说: A peninsula is a narrow land mass jutting into the ocean. It is used as a metaphor here to describe a tenuous relationship I think.
3. he found a new perch, where he might in peace await the dawning of his day.　徐译“它找到了一个新的枝头，飞了上去，栖息在上面，在那儿它可以安静地等待他的一天的黎明了”，perch（A branch serving as a roost for a bird）一词，由“枝头”和“栖息”合力译出了。
因为猫头鹰是夜鸟，它的一天开始于黄昏。（Because the owl is nocturnal, its day begins at dusk.）