48 Coolidge, Notes on the Screech Owl. [fan. 



NOTES ON THE SCREECH OWL. 



BY P. T. COOLIDGE. 



I. — A Young Screech Owl in Captivity. 



On June 5, 1902, I obtained a young Screech Owl (Megascops 

 asio), which had been found two or three days before in a road 

 in Cambridge, Mass. A brief description of the bird at the begin- 

 ning of its period of captivity will give some idea of its age. Its 

 total length was about seven inches, of which about one inch was 

 tail. The whole plumage was remarkably soft and fur-like; 

 the facial disk was not very clearly defined, and the ears were 

 merely certain areas in the scalp plumage the feathers of which 

 could be erected at will. At the end of the first week of captivity, 

 the owl could fly well. Before acquiring this accomplishment, 

 when put in some position of precarious footing, like the slippery 

 arm of a chair, he could move most easily by crawling, sometimes 

 clinging with his bill parrot-fashion. On the floor he would patter 

 away as nimbly as a sandpiper. 



The first evening he was as tame as a hungry robin nestling. 

 He would perch willingly on one's finger, and w T ould allow him- 

 self to be stroked. But when he first saw me the next morning, 

 his gentleness had all disappeared. Hissing, and snapping his 

 bill, he swayed from one foot to the other, and held his wings off 

 from his sides and ruffled his feathers so that he was fully six 

 inches wide. His hiss, in particular, was about as terrifying as 

 a gentle puff from an empty atomizer. This performance was 

 repeated but once or twice during the eleven weeks of his imprison- 

 ment with me. Thinking the bird might be hungry, as he had 

 been given nothing the night before, I tried as soon as possible 

 to feed him with liver. He protested much, by a rather musical 

 chattering, especially at my attempts to force morsels down his 

 throat. 



The cage which the owl occupied during the summer was a box 

 eighteen inches high, twenty-five inches long, and twenty-two 

 inches wide, one side of which was covered with "cellar window 



