The Screech Owl 309 
erally in hollow trees, but not in the deep woods. 
Little nesting material, other than rotten wood and 
a few feathers, is used. The eggs, varying in number 
from four to six, are white and nearly round, and 
in our latitudes are usually deposited from the fifth 
to the twentieth of April. 
The young, if taken a few days before they are 
ready to leave the nest, may be tamed quite easily. 
In the latter part of June, 1904, I was informed 
that a coachman had caught two little owls while 
they were lazily dozing the morning hours away 
on the top of a woodpile. I called upon the man, and 
was informed that he.had two owls, which he called 
“cat-owls.” They were in a box by the barn, and 
he told me that three times a day they were fed bread 
soaked in milk. The larger owl, he informed me, 
was a male and the smaller one a female. I do not know 
how he determined this, but he was very positive in 
his statements concerning owls, telling me a great 
deal about these birds: that they were very scarce; 
that if, when about to sct out on a journey an owl 
“hooted,” you were sure to have bad luck; also that if 
for three nights in succession an owl was heard close 
to a house and from the same tree, there would be 
a death in the family within the next six months. To 
all this astonishing information he added that he 
