Aj.ril, IS,s-A] 



AND UOLOCIST. 



109 



American Barn Owl. 



CONCLUDED. 



Slightly widening to the end -svliere it is 

 quite commodious, being often as much as 

 two feet in diameter. For some time it 

 was a perplexing question to me as to lion- 

 and b)j what these holes were excavated. 

 After careful investigation, I am convinced 

 that the owls themselves make many of 

 them. A slight crevice or squirrel hole is 

 selected, and, with their powerful claws, 

 they hollow it out to proper dimensions. 

 Both birds are frequently found occujjj-ing 

 the cavity during the day, — the male to one 

 side of the nest 



But the burrows are not always selected. 

 Two nests were found in holes in o.ak trees, 

 one was found in a barn by Master Ben- 

 nie Field of Newhall, and in April, 1880, I 

 found a pair occupying the deserted nest 

 of a crow, which was placed about twenty 

 feet from the groimd in a cottonwood. I 

 visited this nest at two different times be- 

 fore taking the eggs (five in niimber), and 

 drove the female from the nest on each oc- 

 casion. — As an interesting fact in this con- 

 nection, I may add that, this season. I took 

 from this j)articu]ar nest two sets of Long- 

 eared Owl's eggs and one of the Common 

 Crow, ( Coroi/.i J'nif/iuori/.s.) 



The use of a nest of this kind l)y the 

 Barn Owl is very rare, I think : careful 

 8e.arch failed to discover a second instance 

 of this kind. As stated above this owl be- 

 gins nesting early in February, but in that 

 vicinity a majority have not completed 

 their sets before the first of March. On 

 March 5, 1881, Mr. Fred Corey and I met 

 with remarkable success with this owl's 

 eggs. "We visited a deep baranca a few 

 miles east of Santa Paula, where we knew 

 them to be abundant. We arrived upon 

 the groTind early in the morning, with 

 spade and rope ready for a hard day's 

 work, — and the number of sets we ob- 

 tained was limited only by the time re- 

 quired in digging for them. Our only way 



of getting at the nests was by tying one 

 end of our long rojje to a stake driven se- 

 curely in the groimd at some chstance from 

 the edge of the baranca, tying the other 

 end around our waist and letting ourself 

 down to the hole. Then, after more or less 

 pietty hard digging we were able to reach 

 the eggs. We dug down to eleven nests 

 altogether, from six of which we got forty- 

 four er/f/s, ranging from six to ten eggs to 

 the nest. One of the other nests contained 

 nothing ; another, five eggs, one of which 

 was pipped ; another with one young and 

 six eggs ; still another with four eggs and 

 five young : and yet another with five eggs 

 and five young. The young varied gi-eatly 

 in size, some were scarcely dry, others were 

 a week or more old. From these and sub- 

 sequent oliservatious, I am led to think 

 that the number of eggs varies horn /ire to 

 ten, averaging about seven, which is the 

 largest number I have seen mentioned by 

 any other writer. Cones says " from three 

 to six :" Baird, Brewer, and Eidgway, 

 '• from three to four :" Maynard, " from 

 three to ff>ur : " Gentry, " from three to 

 four, very rarely more ;" and that veteran 

 oologist, Capt. Bendire, in a letter to Mr. 

 J. M. Wade, which I was kindly permitted 

 to read, says : " Seven had been the great- 

 est number I had heard this species credited 

 with. " All of these figures seem far too 

 low, yet it may be that the number of eggs • 

 depends upon the locality, as does the 

 place of the nest. 



A word upon what different authorities 

 s.ay regarding its nest, m.ay not be out of 

 place. As to whether it constructs any nest 

 seems to depend entirely where it nests ; 

 if in holes in cliffs, trees, or walls, no lining 

 is used : if in l)arns or houses, it constructs 

 a nide nest of sticks or other rubbish easily 

 brought together. Summing up what the 

 various observers had written on this jioint, 

 it equals the above, which is in harmony 

 with my own observations. 



Prof. Gentry, in Life-Histories of Birds 

 of Eastern Pennsylvania, says: "As soon 



