264 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



On April 26, 1925, while driving through Pasco County, we stopped 

 to explore several tracts of burned-over pinewoods, looking for 

 sparrow hawks' nests. Flickers and red-headed woodpeckers were 

 very common here, and there were plenty of their old holes in the 

 charred pine stumps; three of the holes that we examined were all 

 occupied by Florida screech owls, all with young of various ages. 



Francis M. Weston sent me a photograph of one of two very low 

 nests that he found in an open meadow near Pensacola (pi. 64). They 

 were in stumps that "were left from medium sized cypresses (Taxodium 

 ascendens) that had been sawed down, and the nests in both were made 

 in hollows of decayed limbs less than 3 feet from the ground. There 

 was no cover of any kind within 100 yards." 



Dr. William L. Ralph (Bendire, 1892) says: 



They are not at all particular as to the height at which they nest. I have found 

 them occupying holes anywhere from 8 to 80 feet from the ground. They nest 

 frequently in rotten stumps at such heights as to make it dangerous, if not impos- 

 sible, to reach them. I remember one pair that nested near the house where I 

 boarded, in a hole at least 80 feet above the ground, near the top of a very large 

 rotten stump which towered above the tops of a clump of trees among which it 

 was standing. Every time during the breeding seasons of two years that I would 

 go near this stump one of the pair, whichever might be sitting, would look out of 

 the hole in a most provoking manner, for I wanted a set of eggs of this subspecies 

 very much at that time, but the stump was not climbable. Usually it is a hard 

 matter to make these birds show themselves; this pair, however, seemed to know 

 that they were perfectly safe, and never hesitated to make their appearance. 



Harold H. Bailey (1932) writes: "This season there has been called 

 to my attention, two instances where these little owls have reared 

 families inside houses, on top of the ceiling, access to which was through 

 ventilator tiles." 



Eggs.- — The Florida screech owl lays two to four eggs; three is the 

 usual number, and two is commoner than four. The eggs are like 

 those of other screech owls, but they average smaller than those of 

 the more northern races. The measurements of 57 eggs average 33.7 

 by 28.8 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 36.8 

 by 27.7, 35.1 by 30.9, 30 by 28.2, and 33 by 26 millimeters. 



Plumages. — The plumage changes are the same as in the eastern 

 screech owl, and the red and gray phases are fully as pronounced; the 

 red phase is even redder, especially on the under parts; there is also 

 an intermediate or brownish phase. 



Food. — This screech owl lives on much the same kind of food as 

 others of the species, various small mammals, insects, and probably 

 some small birds. J. F. Menge (Bendire, 1892) says: "They feed 

 their young to a great extent on lizards and grasshoppers." Harold 

 H. Bailey (1922) tells of a road, north of Miami Beach, on the west 

 side of which "is the home of several species of mice, marsh rabbit, 

 cotton tail, and the wood and water rats." On the other side is "a 



