LAND BIRDS. 299 



on the "Inland Route," Northern Michigan (probably in Cheboygan 

 county), about the middle of June 1900 or 1901. By the exercise of con- 

 siderable ingenuity and a vast amount of patience she secured a good 

 photograph of the parent bird as it was about to enter the nest in the early 

 morning. This picture was published in the Ladies Home Journal for 

 June, 1906 (Vol. XXIII, No. 7, p. 25), and appears to furnish the northern- 

 most nesting record for the species, about 454^°. 



We have also received an account of a nest of "white owls" found in a 

 hollow tree near Mason, Ingham county, in the spring of 1906, and have 

 no doubt the species was the Barn Owl. Specimens have been taken at or 

 near Monroe, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Olivet, Kalamazoo, Hudson, 

 Johnstown, Grand Rapids, Coldwater, Saginaw, Plymouth, Brighton, 



Fig. 78. Barn Owls. About three months old. 

 Photograph from life by Dr. Thomas H. Jackson. 



Howell, Ionia, Grand Ledge, and Lansing. Apparently this species is not 

 migratory, but remains all winter in the vicinity of its nesting places. 

 Several of the specimens above recorded were taken in mid-winter. 



This species is strictly nocturnal in its habits, and feeds very largely upon 

 rats and mice, although it occasionally takes a small bird, not infrequently 

 an English Sparrow. It also eats ground squirrels, shrews, bats, frogs, 

 insects, crayfish, and more rarely fish. Out of 32 stomachs reported upon 

 by Dr. A. K. Fisher, 1 contained poultry; 3, other birds; 17, mice; 17, 

 other mammals; and 4, insects. An examination of 200 of the "pellets" 

 ejected by a family of these owls showed a total of 454 skulls of small 

 mammals. Of these there were 225 meadow mice; 2 pine mice, 179 house 

 mice, 20 rats, 6 jumping mice, 20 shrews, and 1 star-nosed mole. There 

 was also one skull of a Vesper Sparrow (A. K. Fisher). 



Unlike most other owls this species frequently nests in cities and villages 

 and often takes up its abode in the deserted loft of a warehouse, mill or 

 church tower, where, on the bare floor or in a shallow nest made of the 



