FLORIDA SCREECH OWL 263 



Egg dates. — New York and New England: 25 records, April 12 to 

 May 18; 13 records, April 15 to 27, indicating the height of the 

 season. 



Pennsylvania and New Jersey: 53 records, March 23 to May 18; 

 27 records, April 7 to 21. 



Florida: 37 records, March 11 to May 18; 19 records, April 4 to 18. 



Illinois to Iowa: 16 records, March 29 to May 11; 8 records, 

 April 9 to 24. 



Colorado and Kansas: 33 records, March 13 to May 19; 17 records, 

 April 7 to 24. 



Arizona and New Mexico: 7 records, March 26 to June 6. 



British Columbia to Oregon: 46 records, March 26 to July 13; 

 23 records, April 15 to May 7. 



California: 127 records, March 7 to June 5; 64 records, April 7 to 

 May 3. 



Texas and Mexico: 48 records, February 27 to May 25; 24 records, 

 April 5 to 30. 



Baja California: 13 records, April 10 to May 20; 7 records, April 

 18 to May 15. 



OTUS ASIO FLORIDANUS (Ridgway) 



florida screech owl 

 Plates 63, 64 



HABITS 



According to the 1931 Check-List, this subspecies is now restricted 

 to peninsular Florida, the typical race (Oius asio asio) being assigned 

 to the South Atlantic and Gulf States formerly included in the range 

 of floridanus. Ridgway (Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, 1905) de- 

 scribes this race as "similar to var. asio, (what we now call naevius) 

 but much smaller, and the colors deeper. The gray stage very similar 

 to that of var. asio, but the red phase very appreciably different, in 

 there being a greater amount of rufous on the lower parts, the breast 

 being nearly uniformly colored, and the rufous broken elsewhere into 

 transverse broad bars, connected along the shaft." 



Nesting. — On April 24, 1902, 1 found my first nest of this subspecies 

 in a palmetto grove, close to the cottage where we were staying, at 

 Oak Lodge, in Brevard County, Fla. It was in an old woodpecker's 

 hole, about 18 inches deep and about 18 feet from the ground in a 

 dead cabbage palmetto. The female was sitting on three heavily 

 incubated eggs (pi. 64). 



Another nest, found on April 1, 1925, at Gulf port, Pinellas County, 

 was in an entirely different situation; it was in an old flicker's hole 

 only 10 feet from the ground in a palmetto stub, in an open meadow, 

 far from any cover; it held three fresh eggs and the parent bird. 



