HASBROTJCK'S SCREECH OWL 279 



coloration to 0. a. mccallii but decidedly larger, darker, and much less 

 buffy gray above, and under parts much more heavily penciled, the 

 transverse bars, especially, being much broader, as well as more 

 numerous; mottling of legs much darker brown; rufescent phase 

 similar to that of 0. a. naevius." 



E. M. Hasbrouck (1889), for whom this owl was named, describes 

 part of its supposed habitat as follows: 



Eastland County, Texas, is situated between latitudes 32°-33° and longitudes 

 98°-99° or a little northeast of the geographical centre, and is known throughout 

 the country as the poorest and most unattractive portion of the State. The ele- 

 vation varies from twelve hundred to sixteen hundred feet, and the entire County, 

 as well as a number of those lying to the east, is one series of terraces, beginning a 

 little west of Cisco and extending through Erath and Bosque Counties, until the 

 valley of the Brazos is reached. Water is extremely scarce and the timber, al- 

 though pretty generally distributed, is almost entirely of oak, and comprises four 

 species, known as post-oak, bur-oak, black jack, and "shinnery." This last is 

 a short, stunted bush, frequently covering hundreds of acres and rarely exceeding 

 four or five feet in height. 



Nesting. — George Finlay Simmons (1925) says of its nesting habits 

 in the Austin region: "Nest location, 6 to 25, usually 16, feet up in 

 natural hollow in cedar elm, live oak, post oak, or sycamore tree or 

 stump, generally standing on creek bank; once in old woodpecker 

 hollow in telephone pole in town. Hollow, sometimes bare, generally 

 scantily carpeted with small decayed wood chips, a few feathers, or 

 debris of dead leaves, twigs, straw, grass, Spanish moss, or crawfish 

 crusts." 



Mr. Simmons (1915) describes a nest in another locality, probably 

 of this subspecies, as follows: "April 5, 1913, in the woods on Buffalo 

 Bayou about four and a half miles west of Houston, I found a nest in 

 a natural hollow of an elm tree standing on the slope of the bayou ; 

 it contained four eggs, incubation far advanced. The entrance to 

 the cavity was nine feet from the ground at a bend in the trunk of the 

 tree; from the bend the cavity extended almost vertically down into 

 the heart of the tree, about thirty inches deep and six inches in diam- 

 eter; trunk of tree about ten inches in diameter. Only a few leaves 

 and grasses, with a slight lining of feathers, were between the eggs and 

 the bottom of the cavity." 



Howard Lacey (1911) writes: 



A pair of these birds tried to breed in a small heating stove in the house in 1896 

 and again in 1897, coming down the stovepipe which had a double elbow and 

 laying in the stove: they made too much noise scratching up and down the stove- 

 pipe and so had to be discouraged. They often lay their eggs in houses put up 

 for the martins or for pigeons and I think destroy the young birds. In May, 1908, 

 a pair nested in the martin box at the ranch. Finding a dead martin under the 

 box, I got a shotgun and sent a friend up the pole to investigate: an owl flew out 

 and was promptly shot and then my friend found three young owls in the box, 

 and brought them down, and put them under a live-oak tree in the yard. The 



