RICHARDSON'S OWL 225 



was entirely lacking, for they paid no attention to the visitor except 

 when it dropped among them." 



A habit of this bird, which may enable it to stay in the north in 

 winter, is related by A. W. Anthony (190G): "On March 3 [1905] a 

 Richardson's Owl was caught on the Agapuk River [Alaska], It had 

 taken up its quarters in an abandoned igloo, and when driven into 

 the glare of the outer world was confused, and after a short flight 

 returned to the igloo and submitted without protest to capture. From 

 an inspection of several deserted igloos in the interior of the peninsula, 

 I concluded this species was a regular winter resident and made 

 general use of these shelters." Of a similar nature is this report by 

 William Brewster (1925): "Several farmers living near the southern 

 end of Lake Umbagog have assured me that an unfamiliar little Owl 

 resembling the Saw- whet but 'a size or two larger,' sometimes enters 

 their barns in midwinter and occasionally remains in them for weeks 

 at a time when the cold is severe and the ground deeply buried in snow." 



R. V. Lindsa}' (1928) says of the habits of a captive specimen that it 

 is "much more active early in the evening than later. On rainy days 

 he appears quite active, and on fine days very quiet. * * * When 

 disturbed or frightened he has a peculiar habit of swaying sideways on 

 his perch, shifting his weight quickly from one foot to the other. 

 He also has a peculiar habit in the evening of climbing parrot fashion 

 around the wire front of his cage." 



Voice. — The courtship song, which is sometimes likened to the 

 tolling of a soft but high-pitched bell and sometimes to the dropping 

 of water, has already been described. It is probable that the following 

 by Dr. C. Hart Merriam (1882), quoting from the notes of Napoleon 

 A. Comeau, is another description of the same song: "A slow liquid 

 note that resembles the sound produced by water slowly dropping from 

 a height; hence the Montagne Indians call it pillip-pile-tshish which 

 means 'water dropping bird'." According to Dall, quoted by Baird, 

 Brewer, and Ridgway (1905), "it was often heard crying in the evening 

 almost like a human being." Richardson (Swainson and Richardson, 

 1831) says "its cry at night is a single melancholy note, repeated at 

 intervals of a minute or two." Nelson (1887) says: "In one instance, 

 while at the Yukon mouth, I heard them uttering a peculiar grating 

 cry on a cloudy morning in the middle of May." Rev. P. B. Peabody 

 (1899), who captured one of these owls in April in Minnesota, says: 

 "While not actually tame, from the first he showed ecstatic delight in 

 my stroking of the feathers on the back of his head, — chirping delight- 

 edly during the process, with much the manner and voice of a chicken 

 when tucked under the maternal wing." 



Enemies. — This little owl is doubtless the victim of larger owls and 

 of hawks at times. Macoun (1909) records a set of four eggs, and 



