OWLS. 349 



from their strong resemblance to the noise of a saw-mill, and 

 from the ventriloquism with which they are uttered. I have, 

 however, vainly tried to produce similar sounds through vari- 

 ous combinations of files and saws. The Saw-whet Owls, as 

 they are called on account of these notes, have also a single 

 low cry. 



V. MEGASCOPS. 



A. ASiq. Screech Owl. Mottled Oiol. lied Old. A 

 common summer resident, but here rare, or absent, in winter.* 



a. Averaging nine inches in length. Gray, or brownish 

 red, paler below ; variously marked, chiefly wdth black. 



h. The eggs are laid in the hollow of a tree, an apple tree 

 being frequently selected, in which are often placed a few 

 simple materials, such as leaves or dry grass. The eggs, of 

 which four are here laid about the middle of April, average 

 1.35 X 1-20 of an inch, though occasionally specimens mea- 

 sure 1.50 X 1-30 of an inch. They are white, and nearly 

 spherical. 



c. The Screech Owls are probably the most well-known of 

 the American Owls, owing to their general abundance in the 

 United States, their frequent occurrence near the haunts of 

 man, and their peculiar tremulous notes. During the day, 

 they rest in the hollow of a tree, a thick evergreen, or even 

 the hay-loft of a barn, but from these retreats they are some- 

 times driven by impertinent Jays and other tormentors. They 

 seem dazed by the light, and sometimes, when perched on a 

 fence in the sunlight, as occasionally happens, they may easily 

 be approached and even captured. At dusk they become 



* Throughout most of southern New coniferous forests of northern New 



England this species is resident and England, hut it breeds at many locali- 



deeidedly the commonest of our Owls, ties in the more open and cultivated 



It affects rather than shims thickly parts of Maine, New Hampshire, and 



settled regions, and when not too much Vermont. Mr. Minot was certainly 



persecuted frequently breeds in or mistaken in thinking that it is " rare, 



near towns and cities. In June, 1893, a or absent, in winter " about Boston, 



nest with young was found in the Class for it is apparently more numerously 



Day elm at Harvard College in the very represented there at that season than 



heart of Cambridge. The Screech Owl at any other, excepting, possibly, late 



is seldom or never seen in the great autumn. — W. B. 



