48 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 9 



more are at times laid. Sometimes the eggs lie on the bare earth or whatever 

 material the nest cavity contains, but nearly always there is a large amount of 

 fur, bones, and other refuse lying around and under the eggs. Six eggs found 

 in a nest on April 12, 1902, were in various stages of incubation, one or two be- 

 ing nearly ready to hatch. Another nest that was examined on the same date 

 just six years later was found to contain six eggs not quite so far advanced in 

 incubation, while nearby was another cavity with four apparently fresh eggs. 



May the Barn Owl continue to click and scream and cast his shadow over 

 the fields through the long moonlight nights of many years to come ! 



Long-eared Owl. Asio wilsonianus (Lesson). 



The Long-eared Owl is nowhere an abundant species in the vicinity of Fres- 

 no, for the same reasons, no doubt, that cause other owls to be scarce throughout 

 this region. It has been met with along the San Joaquin River, and rarely in 

 the trees that follow the courses of some of the creeks leading down out of the 

 hills to the eastward of the city. It also occurs in certain favorable places along 

 some of the large sloughs near Wheatville. 



October 11, 1903, a Long-eared Owl was flushed from a thick willow clump 

 growing close to the Gould ditch near Tarpey. After a short flight it alighted 

 on a branch of a large cottonwood tree, where it sat blinking in the afternoon 

 sunlight. 



Mr. Chas. E. Jenney tells me that he has found this owl nesting in the 

 willows along the San Joaquin River, and Mr. Grinnell mentioned having heard 

 the call of this species near Lane's Bridge, while camped there the first week in 

 April, 191 1. 



April 30, 1912, while walking along the dry bed of a slough not far from 

 the New Hope school house, I frightened one of these owls from a willow, and 

 soon found its nest which was built not over ten feet from the ground at the base 

 of a large limb. The nest was very well built, and while I hardly think it likely 

 that the tenants built it themselves, yet I am at a loss to know what species it 

 belonged to originally. It was far too small and compactly built to be the work- 

 manship of any of our hawks, and it could not have been constructed by crows 

 or night herons, as neither have ever been found nesting anywhere near. The 

 situation, too, was rather unusual, as I could almost look into it from the bank 

 of the slough. It was the exposed position of the nest that made me doubt 

 whether the owls had any part in its construction, as there were several dark and 

 heavily foliaged trees only a few yards away where it seems this species would 

 have chosen a summer home, had the birds not been willing to make some sacri- 

 fices in order to avoid the duties of house building. The nest lining consisted of 

 only a few dry leaves and grasses upon which rested six eggs just ready to hatch, 

 two being already pipped. 



I trust that Fresno County is now richer by six Long-eared Owls and cer- 

 tainly no more valuable creatures exist than these nocturnal hunters, ever on the 

 alert to wage warfare on the mouse and gopher hosts. 



Short-eared Owl. Asio flammeus (Pontoppidan). 



Short-eared Owls are very common in suitable places during the winter, and 

 are known to remain and breed sparingly. December 25, 1902, one was flushed 



