236 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A different type of roost is described by Richard F. Miller (1923) 

 as follows: 



On April 5, 1922, at Holmesburg, Philadelphia, Pa., while searching the upper 

 border of a strip of woods, for a Cardinal's nest, I almost bumped my head against 

 a Saw-whet Owl that was roosting under a dense canopy of honeysuckle vines, 

 five feet high, that covered one of the bushes. The bird flew about fifteen feet 

 and lit on a limb of a bush, a yard from the ground, with its back towards me. It 

 permitted me to approach within two yards, turning the head around to watch me. 

 It then flew about four yards and lit at the same height upon another bush. I 

 approached within three yards before the bird flew to another perch, about ten 

 yards away; both of these times it faced me and quietly and unconcernedly let me 

 approach. It seemed utterly fearless, and gazed at me with wide opened eyes. 

 Under its roost was a pile of 31 pellets, and two feet distant was a similar roost, 

 under a dense canopy of Lonicera vines; beneath this one were 35 pellets, alto- 

 gether 66 pellets beside pills of excrement, indicating that the bird had spent the 

 winter here. 



Except by some chance encounter, as related above, even the keen- 

 est human eyes are not likely to discover this diminutive owl, perched 

 silent and motionless in dense foliage, unless its presence is indicated 

 by the excited activity and noisy protests of its small bird enemies, 

 such as sparrows, warblers, chickadees, and kinglets, that always show 

 their hatred and fear of all owls. 



Voice. — The far-famed saw-filing notes are far from being the only, 

 or even the commonest, notes uttered by this versatile little owl. 

 William Brewster (1925) has decribed several of these in his notes from 

 Umbagog Lake, Maine. Of the saw-filing notes, he says: "They 

 may be heard everywhere in the forest in February and March; 

 oftenest just before daybreak, not infrequently throughout the night, 

 occasionally in the daytime during cloudy weather when they are 

 thought to presage rain. The saw-filing season reaches its height in 

 March and usually ends before the first of May, although it may con- 

 tinue intermittently through that month and even into the first week 

 of June." On May 18 "they were given at infrequent intervals and 

 always in sets of threes thus: — skreigh-aw, skreigh-aw, skreigh-aw. 

 Their general resemblance to the sounds produced by filing a large 

 mill-saw was very close, I thought." On May 28, he heard a some- 

 what different, metallic note; the owl "kept it up for a little more than 

 a minute, regularly uttering four apparently monosyllabic notes every 

 five seconds. * * * Their metallic quality was so pronounced 

 and their tone so ringing that they reminded me of the anvil-like 

 tang-tang-tang-ing with which a species of Bell Bird makes the tropical 

 forests of Trinidad resound. To this, indeed, they bore no slight re- 

 semblance, although much less resonant and far-reaching. Nor did 

 they fail to suggest saw-filing also." The above notes were heard 

 near mid-day, but, at 9 p. m. on June 4, one "was heard to uncommon 

 advantage, not only because of his nearness, but also because the calm 



