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'M. CHYPTOGLAUX ACAUICA ACAUJCA (Ciuioliuj. SAW-WilKT OWL. (oT2) 



This little owl is appareutly very rare in Indiana. We have two speci- 

 mens, both adult males, obtained at Terr(> Hante, March 25. 1890. One of 

 them was seen sitting on the edge of a cradle in the children's room of the 

 nouse of my neighbor, Judge Stimpson, on South Seventh Street. When 

 the children awoke in the morning, they saw the little owl as it sat on the 

 cradle and as it flew from the room through an open window and alighted on 

 a tree in the yard. One of the boys struck it with a stone from a "nigger- 

 killer". 



On May 8, 1883, I found a nest of this species in a dead elm snag in Stock- 

 ton's thicket near Burlington. The snag was about 20 feet tall but had 

 fallen over and lodged in the fork of a small soft maple. About half-way 

 up the snag was a hole in which a iiicker had her nest with three fresh 

 eggs, while a little higher up in another hole I found six young Saw-whet 

 Owls just about ready to leave the nest. I took four of the young owls, 

 hoping to make pets of them. Later that evening. I returned to the nest, 

 hoping to find the parent birds but neither they, nor the two young which 

 I had left, could be found. 



About this same time Mr. Fletcher M. Noe of Indianapolis reported receiv- 

 ing one from near Pyrmont. Carroll County. 



On Thanksgiving day, 1887, one was found dead in the engineer's room 

 at the University, at Bloomington, and brought to us. 



91. Otus Asio ASio (Liiuia'us). screech, owl. (37.3) 



The Screech Owl is the most common and best known owl in the state. 

 It is a permanent resident and quite common in all the counties in which 

 I have had opportunity to make ornithological observations. I have the fol- 

 lowing definite records : May 8. 1880, a female in gray plumage obtained 

 in the White River bottom near Gosport. Wliile walking through the 

 weedy woods near the river. I flushed the owl from the ground. It flew 

 into a small tree, where I shot it. A short distance away another, also in 

 gray plumage, was seen to fly into a hollow limb. One in gray plumage at 

 Terre Haute November 2. 1880. December 30. 1887, a female in gray plum- 

 age, received from Seelyville. Vigo County. March 2; 1889. one brought to 

 us alive by Mr. W. J." Whitaker of Terre Haute. January 11. 1890. a female 

 in red plumage found in the hollow of an oak tree on the Baur farm three 

 miles north of Terre Haute. Two others also in the red plumage were cap- 

 tured by James McTaggart at Terre Haute about December 12. January 

 13, 1891. a female, very light gray, brought by Miss Irene Christian, from 

 near Terre Haute. December 4, 1884, a female brought us by Schuyler Ray 

 of Camden. A week later (December 12), another specimen in gray plum- 

 age was shot by Philip Ray from a tree in Chas. E. Rice's yard in Camden. 

 February 17, 1885. a female in gray plumage was caught in D. T. Sander- 

 son's barn at Camden. January 14. 1888, a male in red plumage caught 

 by nie in my father's barn near Burlington. 



In the winter of 1878 and '79 screech owls were unusually common in 

 Carroll County: a great many specimens were collected or brought to us 

 from the vicinity of Camden, Flora, and Burlington. October 19. and De- 

 cember 1. 9, 14, 19, 24, 20. 29, and 31, 1878, one secured on each date ; Jan- 



