326 I^It'E HISTORIES OF NORTH AMEIUOAN BIRDS. 



quired by a pair of tliese Owls to feed their family, usually cousistiug of from 

 five to seveu young, is almost incredil)le, and I am certain exceeds the cap- 

 tures of a dozen cats for the same period. The young owlets are always 

 hungry and will eat their own weight in food daily and even more if they 

 can get it. 



In the southern portions of the United States the Barn Owl is resident 

 thi-oughout the year, and at times somewhat gregarious during the winter. 

 Mr. B. W. Evermann states that he saw a flock of more than fifty among the 

 oaks in the Canada de Largo, a few miles from San Buenaventura, Califor- 

 nia, and I believe it is more abundant in southern California than in any 

 other portion of the United States. I met with it several times in the neigh- 

 borhood of Tucson, Arizona, where they were rather rare, but they seem 

 to be pretty generally distributed over this Territory, where they usually 

 live in abandoned mining shafts and prospect holes. Mr. Herbert Brown 

 writes me that he met with five of these birds in an abandoned mine at a 

 depth of 50 feet I saw one actively engaged in hunting along the banks 

 of Rillitto Creek during a cloudy day in December, 1872, and in April of 

 the same year saw another on quite a bright sunny day being chased b}' 

 either a pair of common Crows or White-necked Ravens. In this vicinity I 

 believe they nest mostly in deserted buiTOws of badgers, at any rate more 

 than once I saw them sitting in the mouth of such burrows. 



Their nesting sites are quite variable and include all sorts of places, such 

 as natural hollows in trees, holes and cavities in clay banks or cliffs, burrows 

 under ground enlarged to suit their needs, in the sides of old wells, aban- 

 doned mining sliafts, dovecots, barns, church steeples, etc., and sometimes, 

 though rarely, in perfectly exposed and unprotected situations, such as the 

 flat roof of an occupied dwelling-house in the midst of a villag-e. Mr. W. O. 

 Emerson, of Haywards, California, writes me: "A pair of Barn Owls nested 

 the past season (1889) on the bare tin roof running around a cupola of a 

 neighl)or's house, which was suiTounded by a low railing. Not less than 

 twent)'-four eggs Avere laid and none of them were taken away at any 

 time. There was no nesting material on which the eggs were placed, not 

 even a single twig, and tliey naturally rolled around on the roof, as it was 

 impossible for the bird to cover them all. When taken down finally and 

 examined, it was found they were all rotten, caused, no doubt, by the in- 

 tense lieat from the sun's reflection on the tin roof" 



Where holes in clay banks along rivers and tlie sides of ravines are 

 used, or the deserted burrows of ground squirrels or larger rodents, they are 

 enlarged to suit their needs, and the birds live in them the year round, carry- 

 ing most of their food to these places to be devoured at leisui-e. 



In southern California nidification l^egins occasionally as early as Jan- 

 uary, and while usually but a single brood is raised by these birds in a 

 season, now and then they will rear two. Mr. F. Stejjhens informed me that 

 a pair hatched a lirood fif six young in January, 1885, at St. Isabel, Cali- 

 fornia, and on March '25 the l)ird was sitting- on a second set of ten eggs. 



