324 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



mottes, miles from timber." W. B. Savary writes us: "On the south 

 side of the Aransas River in Bee County, about 12 miles from 

 Skidmore, I found a western horned owl and a turkey vulture nesting 

 in a large live oak, each in a separate cavity. The vulture had the 

 lower and larger one, which was nearly 3 feet in depth and 18 inches 

 in diameter. The young vulture was standing up and probably 10 

 or 12 days old. The owl's nest was in a smaller cavity where a hollow 

 limb had broken off on the opposite side, about 4 feet higher up. 

 The young owlet was in the down with quills showing ; very likely it 

 was two weeks old." 



In New Mexico, Jensen (1923) says: "A pair is nesting regularly in 

 a cut on the Santa Fe-Lamy Railway near Arroyo Hondo. The 

 incubating bird is only about six feet from the passing trains." In 

 Arizona, Kennard (1923) found a western red-tailed hawk's nest 

 about 15 feet above the ground in a mesquite tree. It "was found to 

 contain three Hawk's eggs and one of an Owl, presumably a Western 

 Horned Owl * * *. Of the Hawk's eggs, one had been dented 

 on some previous occasion, presumably by the claw of the parent bird, 

 and was addled, and the other two were pretty hard set; while the 

 Owl's egg was much fresher, laid I should say at least a week after 

 those of the Hawk." Although most observers say there is little or 

 no actual building of a nest, Mrs. Bailey (1928) says that they "are 

 variously lined with sticks, leaves, bark, moss, and their own feathers." 

 In Arizona, these owls often nest in the great hollow arms of the 

 saguaro, the giant cactus, and still of tener in the deep crotches between 

 those arms. Nests may be at a considerable height in a tall cotton- 

 wood ; but when placed on old magpie nests, or in stunted cedars and 

 junipers, they may be as low as only 10 feet above ground. 



Strange to say, some of these owls nest in oldTndian or cliff dwell- 

 ings. Sugden (1928) says: 



The nest was in a cliff dwelling about a mile above the Augusta Natural Bridge 

 in White Canyon, San Juan County, Utah. This Moki cliff dwelling, the habita- 

 tion of a prehistoric Indian, was in a ledge in the sandstone wall of the canyon 

 about 20 feet above the dry stream bed. It consisted of two rooms, the larger 

 about 8 feet square, the smaller about 6 by 8 feet. The nest was in the far 

 corner of the smaller room, on the side next to the cliff wall. The roof had fallen 

 in on the outer side but was supported on the inner side, forming a shelter over 

 the nest. On the floor of the dwelling was a thick layer of pack-rat droppings 

 and debris including the cactus spines remaining after the rats had eaten the 

 fleshy parts. The nest itself was a depression in the debris lined with a few sticks, 

 bones, feathers and excrement. 



Of a somewhat similar location, Gilman (1909) writes: "For at least 

 four years a pair of these owls have nested in the pre-historic Casa 

 Grande ruins. * * * Mr. Pinkley [the custodian] told me the 

 birds raised a brood each year in the old building, and had never been 



