238 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



these owls in Ontario in 1906, as revealed by the disastrous effects of 

 a severe storm. Taverner and Swales (1911) write: 



The first indication we received of any strong migratory movement in this 

 species was when W. E. Saunders of London, Ont., received word from Mr. Tripp 

 of Forest, Ont., of a migration disaster on the shores of Lake Huron, October 18, 

 1906. His investigation of this occurrence was reported in "The Auk." He dis- 

 covered the shore of the lake in the vicinity of Port Franks covered with the water- 

 washed bodies of birds that had been overwhelmed in a storm, likely while crossing 

 the lake; and though he covered but a small portion of the affected territory and 

 did not touch upon its worst part, he counted 1,845 dead birds in two miles of 

 shore. Here was evidently a disaster that overcame a large movement of mixed 

 migrants but the salient fact in this connection is, that he counted 24 Saw-whet 

 Owls among the debris. Mr. Saunders is, and has been for the last twenty-five 

 years, a most keen and enthusiastic field worker, but in summing up his experience 

 with the species, says: "The Saw-whets were a surprise. They are rare in 

 western Ontario, and one sees them only at intervals of many years, evidently 

 they were migrating in considerable numbers." 



A statement elicited from the captain of the fish boat "Louise" of Sandusky, 

 Ohio, bears very closely upon this subject. He says, that about October 10, 1903, 

 when on the steamer "Helena", off Little Duck Island, Lake Huron, he saw a large 

 migration of small owls and that many of them lit on the steamer. His descrip- 

 tion tallied very well with that of this species and there is the probability that it 

 was a relay of this same migration that was so hardly used in 1906. 



In an adjacent and quite comparable station, Long Point, on Lake Erie and 

 sixty miles to the east, we had heard that Saw-whets were at times captured in 

 numbers by stretching old gill nets across the roads in the woods. The birds 

 flying down the clear lanes became entangled in the meshes and thus caught. 



[While working through the red cedar thickets on this point, on October 15, 1910], 

 within less than two hours, and in a small part of the thickets, we discovered 

 twelve of these owls. We looked carefully for the young, the albifrons plumage, 

 but without success. 



All birds seen were alert and the majority in the densest red cedar clumps. 

 Most of them were close up against the trunk of their respective trees, and usually 

 about six feet from the ground, the highest being about twelve feet, and the 

 lowest four. None showed any fear. But one flushed, and that was only when 

 the tree it was on was jarred in our passage; even then it flew but a few yards and 

 allowed our close approach. None uttered any sound except the usual owlish 

 snapping of the bill. * * * 



Here, then, are records of four migrational massings of this hitherto supposed 

 resident owl. It was too early in the season to explain their gatherings as "winter 

 wandering in search of food", and the close tallying of all the dates point to the 

 conclusion that from the middle to the end of October the Saw-whet Owls migrate 

 in considerable numbers, but from their nocturnal habits and secluded habitats 

 while en route are seldom observed. 



Winter. — When the weather is not too severe and the ground is not 

 too deeply covered with snow, I believe that some of these little owls 

 spend the winter as far north as northern New England. They 

 seldom, if ever, I think, perish by freezing to death, if they can find 

 sufficient food to keep up their vitality; but when the mice are all 

 living in their tunnels under the snow, and most of the small birds 

 have gone south, the poor owls are hard pressed for food, become very 



