26 XORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



the far countries, where it arrives as soon as tlic snow disappears, and de- 

 parts again in September. A female was killed May 20 with eggs nearly 

 ready for exclusion. The bird was by no means rare, and, as it frequently 

 hunted for its ])rey in the daytime, wiis often seen. Its principal haunts 

 appeared to be dense thickets of young pines, or dark and entangled willow- 

 clumps, where it would sit on a low bmnch, watching assiduously for mice. 

 Wheu disturbed, it would fly low for a short distance, and then hide itself in 

 a l)ush, from whence it was not easily dri\-en. Its nest was said to be on the 

 ground, in a dry place, and formed of withered gra.ss. Hutcliins is quoted as 

 giving the number of its eggs as ten or twelve, and describing them as round. 

 The latter is not correct, and seven appears to be theii- maximum number. 



Mr. Downes speaks of it as very rare in Nova Scotia, but Elliott Cabot 

 gives it as breeding among the islands in the Bay of Fuudy, oft' the coast, where 

 he found several nests. It was not met with by Professor Verrill in West- 

 ern Maine, but is found in other parts of the State. It is not uncommon in 

 Eastern Massachusetts, where specimens are frequently killed and brought 

 to market for sale, and where it also breeds in favorable localities on the 

 coast. Mr. William Brewster met with it on Muskeget, near Nantucket, 

 where it had been breeding, and where it was evidently a resident, its plumage 

 having become bleached by exposure to the sun, and the reflected light of 

 tiio white sand of that treeless island. It is not so common in the interior, 

 tliougli ^Ir. Allen gives it as resident, and rather common, near Springfield. 

 Dr. AVood found it breeding in Connecticut, witliin a few miles of Hartford. 



Dr. Coues gives it as a resident species in South Carolina, and Mr. Allen 

 also mentions it, on the authority of Mr. Boardmau, as quite common among 

 the marshes of Florida. Mr. Audubon also sjieaks of finding it so plenti- 

 ful in Florida that on one occasion he shot seven in a single morning. 

 Tliey were to be found in the open prairies of that country, rising from the 

 tall grass in a hurried manner, and moving in a zigzag manner, as if sud- 

 denly wakened from a soimd sleep, and then sailing to some distance in a 

 direct course, and dropping among the thickest herbage. Occasionally the 

 Owl would enter a thicket of tangled palmettoes, where with a cautious ap- 

 proach it could be taken alive. He never found two of these birds close 

 together, but always singly, at distances of from t wenty to a hundred yards ; 

 and win 11 two or more were started at once, they never Hew towards each 

 other. 



]\Ir. Audubon met with a nest of this Owl on one of the mountain 

 ridges in the great pine forest of Pennsylvania, containing four eggs 

 nearly ready to be hatched. They were bluish-white, of an elongated 

 form, and measured 1.50 inches in length and 1.12 in breadth. The nest, 

 made in a slovenly manner with diy grasses, was rmder a low bush, and 

 covered o\'er with tall grass, through wliich the bird had made a path. 

 The parent bird betrayed her presence by making a clicking noise with her 

 bill as he passed by ; and he nearly put his hand on her before she would 



