SPOTTED SCREECH OWL 287 



I was almost certain that a pair of Spotted Screech Owls was nesting in the 

 vicinity of my camp, as the male had been heard several times during the month. 

 Another male arrived one night and passed on, acting like the wandering males 

 earlier in the season. About a week later the worried choo-you — coo-coo notes 

 of the pair attracted my attention. Working carefully toward them, I realized 

 that both birds were giving this call, and I was also surprised that both birds 

 were coming toward me. The female gave the chang note almost continually, 

 and gave the longer call only twice after the two birds were located. The male 

 also gave the chang note a few times. He flew within a few yards of me, lit on 

 a green limb of a white oak, well out near the end, and continued to call choo- 

 you — coo-coo. The male was taken. The female did not call after the shot, 

 but I was able to follow and watch her for a short time. Six nights later, a male 

 giving the mating song was taken within seventy-five yards of the place where 

 the pair had first been seen. The following night the mating call was again heard 

 in the same locality, the owl calling about twenty yards from the place where 

 the first male had been secured. Another owl was answering farther up the 

 canon, and it was noticed that the notes of the calling bird were higher pitched 

 than those of the answering bird. Thinking the bird nearest me was a male, I 

 shot it. This owl, however, proved to be a female in brooding condition. I 

 believe that this female would have had three different mates during the week 

 if she had not been killed. The males thus attracted are probably year-old 

 males, which have not mated and are wandering singly over the country. 



Nesting. — I can find no published account of the nesting habits 

 of this owl that I am willing to accept as authentic. M. French 

 Gilman (1909) found screech owls "rather numerous" and breeding, 

 along the Gila River in Arizona, which he called spotted screech owls 

 (Otus trichopsis). But this locality is far from the known range of 

 trichopsis, which is known to breed, in Arizona at least, only in the 

 white-oak association in the mountains between 4,000 and 6,500 feet 

 elevations. Moreover, he does not mention cineraceus or gilmani 

 (if the latter is recognizable), one of which is the common breeding 

 screech owl of the Gila River region. Furthermore, there was some 

 earlier confusion in the nomenclature of these owls, which may have 

 misled him. 



There are two apparently authentic sets of eggs of the spotted 

 screech owl in the Thayer collection, taken by Virgil W. Owen in the 

 Chiricahua Mountains, Cochise County, Ariz. The female parent 

 was taken with both sets, one of which I have examined. The first 

 set of three fresh eggs was taken on May 6, 1906, at an altitude of 

 about 5,300 feet; the female was dissected and found to have finished 

 laying. The nest was in a natural cavity in an oak tree, about 18 

 feet from the ground. The eggs lay upon some oak leaves in the 

 bottom of the cavity, 14 inches below the entrance. 



The second set of four eggs, in which incubation was well advanced, 

 was taken on May 1, 1907, in the same locality. The nest was at 

 the bottom of an old flicker's hole, the entrance of which was 18 feet 

 from the ground in the trunk of a large wild walnut tree. The eggs 

 were deposited on bits of decayed wood, 10 inches down from the 



