THE OOLOGIST 



165 



MEETING THE ACADIAN OWL 



There is no bird whose acquaintance 

 I was more pleased to make than the 

 tiny Acadian or "Saw- whet" Owl. It 

 was altogether fitting that this formal 

 meeting should have been long de- 

 ferred — it is no slight favor to know 

 so distinguished an individual; to 

 have had it happen so recently as 

 March 19th, 1921, in southwestern 

 Pennsylvania, is only a further tribute 

 to the desirability of the acquaintance- 

 ship. First of all, that is the second 

 smallest Owl in America, the smallest 

 east of the Mississippi. Then again, 

 if the species be not lawfully classed 

 as 'very rare' it is indeed seldom that 

 they are seen. Their daylight habits 

 are so retiring, their size so easily 

 overlooked, that few ornithologists re- 

 port personally encountering them. 



A few words as to the manner of in- 

 troduction to my first Acadian Owl. It 

 v/as a very hot morning (a March 

 thunder storm later), I was sitting on 

 the thick dry leafage that floored a 

 small piece of open, thickety wood- 

 land, watching two Mourning Cloak 

 butterflies celebrating their natal day 

 among the just-opening hepaticas. 

 My interest was caught by a nearby 

 Tufted Titmouse who seemed curious- 

 ly and un-Titmousely flghty at every 

 movement or noise. Something was 

 not just right in the neighborhood, 

 and he felt it. A moment later a 

 sharp alarm note from a Chickadee 

 made him bolt precipitously into a 

 grapevine tangle. No sooner had he 

 done so than he began chattering ex- 

 citedly, adding his scolding to that of 

 a brace of Chickadees, so in no time 

 at least fifteen birds came tilting to 

 the spot. There must be a Screech 

 Owl in that grape tangle, thought I, 

 and proceeded to investigate. What 

 I found just over my head gave 

 me a start also. What a small Screech 



Owl! And what an ofli-shade of 

 rufous! No ear-tufts, either! Why, 

 it is a Saw-whet Owl. The only little 

 Owl in eastern U. S. who does not 

 sport the expressive ear-tuft is the 

 Saw-whet. He regarded me in a ludi- 

 crously anxious manner, cocking his 

 gaze doubtfully at every change in my 

 position; he appeared hardly able to 

 make me out at all, although his eyes 

 were strained to their roundest in the 

 effort. When a Screech Owl gazes at 

 j'ou, you feel that he sees you quite 

 adequately; the brilliant yellow of his 

 irises heightens the keen-eyed effect. 

 But this raptorial pigmy above me 

 lacked that intense yellow iris, his 

 was almost a brown. The round, full 

 pupils, and the odd pencilling radiat- 

 ing around the eye-sockets like "crows' 

 feet," gave them a "hollow-eyed" tired 

 out look. 



About three-quarters the size of dis- 

 tant cousin Screech Owl, he probably 

 did not weight as much as a Robin; 

 yet a certain raptorial dignity, as 

 much as his round, owl-shaped head, 

 gave the impression of adding ounces 

 and inches to his frame. Five or six 

 broad stripes of rich dull brown on a 

 background of white varied his chest 

 markings from the Screecher's, whose 

 frontage is mottled — mottled either 

 black and gray or ferruginous, which- 

 ever phase the latter favors. As 1 

 walked circles about him; he screwed 

 his head round and round in that re- 

 markable way an owl has; he let me' 

 note minutely the fawn-olive colora- 

 tion of his back, permitted me to set 

 him swaying gently up and down by 

 pulling a branch, but did not offer 

 flight. Finally, when I could nearly 

 touch him, he flew out, silent as a 

 moth, to a second vine twenty yard.s 

 off, subjecting himself thereby to a 

 most insulting review by a corps of in- 

 dignant Chickadee. 



Three weeks will elapse before my 



