266 BULLETIN 170, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Dr. James C. Merrill (1878) says: "Near Hidalgo, on May 6, 1876, 1 

 captured a female of this race on her nest in an old hollow stump about 

 five feet from the ground. There were two eggs, nearly hatched, 

 placed on a few chips at the bottom of the hole." 



Eggs. — Major Bendire (1892) says that this owl lays two to five eggs, 

 that they "are similar in every respect to those of the common form, 

 excepting that they are a trifle smaller", and that "the average meas- 

 urement of twelve specimens of this race in the U. S. National Museum 

 collection is 33.5 by 29 millimetres, the largest egg measuring 35.5 by 

 30, the smallest 32.5 by 28 millimetres." 



The measurements of 43 eggs average 33.9 by 29.2 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 39.4 by 29.2, 38.1 by 32.3, 30.7 

 by 27.2, and 35.1 by 25.4 millimeters. 



OTUS ASIO BENDIREI (Brewster) 



CALIFORNIA SCREECH OWL 



HABITS 



When William Brewster (1882a) named this race, he gave as its 

 characters: 



Above essentially similar to asio in its gray dress. Beneath ashy-white, every- 

 where thickly barred and streaked with black; the transverse bars being fine, 

 numerous and regular, the shaft-stripes coarse and generally distributed from the 

 throat to the crissum, both markings occurring as thickly on the median line of the 

 breast and abdomen as along their sides. * * * The chief difference is in the 

 ground -color and markings of the plumage beneath. In asio the central line of the 

 breast and abdomen is nearly always immaculate, while there is frequently a 

 broad, entirely unspotted gular space: in bendirei these parts are as thickly barred 

 and streaked as are the sides, while the ashy tinge of the entire lower surface and 

 the much finer character of the transverse pencilling gives the plumage a clouded 

 appearance which, although difficult of description, is very characteristic. The 

 ear-tufts, also, are usually shorter than those of S. asio. 



This race inhabits the coast region of California, from near the Ore- 

 gon line, where it intergrades with brewsteri, to the San Francisco Bay 

 region. 



Nesting. — The nesting habits of the California screech owl are es- 

 sentially similar to those of other screech owls. Mrs. Irene G. 

 Wheelock (1904) found one nesting in a red-shafted flicker's nest, 

 sitting on three eggs of the flicker and two of the owl's. The flicker's 

 eggs disappeared entirely, but the owl hatched out her own eggs. 

 Mrs. Florence A. Sumner (1933) reports finding a brood of four spar- 

 row hawks and one screech owl, which were all reared successfully by 

 the hawks, in the same nest. 



W. Otto Emerson (1885) succeeded in getting a pair of these owls 

 to nest in a starch box, with some leaves and sawdust in the bottom 

 of it, which he had nailed up on a tree in a grove. He adds further: 

 "I found one the past Spring that had taken up quarters in an old 



