64 
THE OREGON NATURALIST. 
stub, composed of sticks and weed-stems, lined 
with fur, horse hair and a few bits of cotton. 
Eggs whitish very sparingly marked with 
fine pinkish dots-. Taken June roth 1894. 
Incubation one-half Measurements. 
68 x 56.68 x .55 .67 x 55.67 x -55 -07 x.50 
ORANG 2! (6G), 2 
WALTON MITCHELL, 
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA. 
THE SAW-WHET OWL 
(Myctale Acadica) 
The habitat of the Saw-whet or as it is common- 
ly called, the Acadian owl is the southern por- 
tion of British America, and the United States 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts; south in 
the eastern portion as far as southern Pennsyl- 
vania, and in the west as far south as Mexico, 
where it is met with in the mountains- 
This bird is very shy and retiring in its habits, 
seldom leaving its secluded retreats in the wild 
woodlands, until late in the evening, and for 
these reasons it has without doubt escaped no- 
ice in many places within its range and where 
they have been noted as rare, they are more 
common than is generally supposed. 
The food of this owl is similar to all the 
smaller of our owls consisting chiefly of mice 
and insects although when pressed by hunger, 
they kill and devour small birds, and from all 
records at hand. the birds killed are mostly 
those of the sparrow, finch and grosbeak fami- 
lies. Mr. Brewster (in Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club 
1882) gives quite an interesting description of 
the manner in which a young owl of this species 
disgorges the pellets of indigestible matter from 
its stomach as follows. ‘The owl will gape 
several times, then the head will be violently 
shaken sideways, and finally the pellet, coated 
with mucous, would shoot forth, frequently 
falling several inches in front of the spot where 
the bird was sitting.” 
That the Saw-whet owl is, beyond a doubt, 
the soundest sleeper of all our owls has been 
noted by numerous ornithologists, some of them 
having caught the birds alive (in the daytime) 
by placing a hat over them. This owl derives 
its name from its peculiar love-note, which 
sounds very much like a man filing a saw and 
which can be heard for a long distance on ac- 
count of its peculiar shriliness. 
They breed in the United States from the 
middle states northward in old woodpeckers 
holes or natural cavities in trees, no nest being 
buiit. 
though as many as seven have been found in 
one nest, and are laid upon the decayed ma- 
The eggs are usually four in number al- 
terialin the hole. They average 1.00 x 1.20 
inches in size, in colour white, and nearly 
spherical in form, As is the usual habit with 
owls incubation commences upon the first egg 
laid and asa result eggs with different sized 
embryos are found in the nests. Breed dur- 
ing March and April usnally March 2oth to 
April toth. 
IsADOR S TROSTLER 
Omaha Nebraska, 
AMERICAN WATER OUZEE: 
The Water-Ouzel, Czzclus Mexjcanus, com- 
monly called the American Dipper, is one of 
the most interesting of our native birds, and I 
have aften wondered why there has not been 
more written about it. 
Very few collections contain specimens of 
this bird’s egg. It cannot be because the 
birds are rare, because there is not a stream of 
water in the state that has not a few of these 
sweet songsters on it. I say sweet ,songsters, 
because there are, at least to me, ‘ew birds 
that have a finer voice, 
One not 
better known, and its eggs more generally seen, 
reason, why this bird is 
is because collectors do not start early enough 
to look for them, or it may be that they are 
afraid of getting a ‘‘cool bath,” 
I have always heen under the impression that 
they were later in nesting, but for the last two 
years I have paid more attention to their habits 
and have found that they begia’‘nesting late in 
