270 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



that a few of them hung from the corners of its mouth, and its stom- 

 ach was hard to the touch, so tightly was it packed with ants. I 

 have always regretted that I shot the bird." 

 Mr. Bowles (1906a) writes: 



During the greater part of the year these owls are entirely beneficial, their food 

 consisting mostly of mice. Large beetles are often added, and nearly every small 

 stream shows signs of where an owl has successfully angled for craw-fish, carefully 

 splitting and picking the meat from the shell. After the eggs are hatched, how- 

 ever, the parents are at their wit's end to procure food enough for the hungry 

 babies, and it is at this season only that birds are used in the bill of fare. The 

 northwestern flicker seems to be found especially delectable, tho feathers of the 

 Steller jay, western robin and a few other species are sometimes found in the hole 

 with the young. Curiously enough it is most unusual to find remains of juncos, 

 sparrows or other small-sized birds; and, all things considered, these owls unques- 

 tionably do many times as much good as they do harm. 



Voice. — In the same paper Mr. Bowles says on this subject: "The 

 high-keyed, tremulous hooting cry of these birds is, strangely enough, 

 most often heard during the fall months. In spring and summer, tho 

 repeatedly spending the night in localities where they were tolerably 

 abundant, I have never heard them utter a note of any description." 



OTUS ASIO MAXWELLIAE (Ridgway) 

 ROCKY MOUNTAIN SCREECH OWL 



Plate 66 

 HABITS 



This large, pale race is the whitest and, to my mind, the handsomest 

 of our screech owls. Ridgway (1914) describes it as — 



decidedly larger and very much paler than 0. a. aikeni; nearly as large as 0. a. 

 macfarlanei and 0. a. kennicottii, but conspicuously lighter than any other form, 

 with the white purer and more extended and the colored parts paler; ground color 

 above pale gray or grayish brown, relieved by the usual ragged mesial streaks of 

 black and irregular mottlings and vermiculations of lighter and darker shades of 

 grayish, the general color more rufescent, and no darker than very light a6h gray 

 or drab; white spots on outer webs of primaries frequently confluent along edge 

 of quills, the darker spots sometimes hardly visible on proximal portion when 

 wings are closed; under parts with pure white greatly predominating. 



Its range is given in the 1931 Check-List as "foothills and plains 

 adjacent to the eastern Rocky Mountains from eastern Montana and 

 western South Dakota to central Colorado." I suspect that it may 

 range even farther north along the eastern edge of the mountains. It 

 is said to be resident all through the year throughout its range. 



Robert B. Rockwell (1907) writes: 



Both Denis Gale and W. W. Cooke state that M. a. maxwellse rarely ascends 

 higher than 6000 feet, which would preclude the possibility of its extending more 

 than a few miles up into the foothills, and the most easterly record is recorded by 

 Cooke as "30 miles out on the plains", probably referring to the Loveland, Colo- 



