^°i'908^^] Wayne, Breeding Season of the Barn Owl in S. Carolina. 21 



Paras atricapillus. The normal dates for fresh eggs are from 

 May 10 to May 30. This year the only nest found was building 

 on May 25, and had a set of seven nearly fresh eggs on June 4. 



The divergence from the normal nesting did not attract my 

 notice until it was too late to take any notes or data concerning the 

 commoner birds, whose nests I saw in numbers, without collecting 

 or accurately noting. At the same time, in the case of some of the 

 rarer nests I found this year I have no other data with which this 

 year's can be compared. The foregoing species are therefore the 

 only ones as to which I have any accurate data available. 



The data given seem to show, that the tender and delicate birds 

 averaged about two weeks later than usual in deposit of eggs in 

 1907, and that they spent much more than the normal time in nest 

 building. The conclusion seems inevitable that both of these 

 phenomena were directly caused by the unseasonably cold weather. 



THE BREEDING SEASON OF THE AMERICAN BARN 

 OWL {STRIX PRATINCOLA) IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



BY ARTHUR T. WAYNE. 



In Audubon's 'Ornithological Biography,' Vol. II, pp. 404- 

 405, he states the following concerning the breeding of this species: 



"Having arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, in October, 1833, 

 as soon as my family and myself were settled in the house of my 

 friend the Reverend John Bachman, I received information that 

 a pair of owls (of the present species) had a nest in the upper story 

 of an abandoned sugar-house in the city, when I immediately 

 proceeded to the place, accompanied by Dr. Samuel Wilson and 

 William Kunhardt, Esq. We ascended cautiously to the place^ 

 I having pulled off my boots to prevent noise. W^hen we reached 

 it, I found a sort of large garret filled with sugar-moulds, and 

 lighted by several windows, one of which had two panes broken. 

 I at once discovered the spot where the owls were by the hissing 

 sounds of the young ones, and approached slowly and cautiously 



