V0l "mi Vni ] Sherman, Nest Life of the Screech Owl. 155 



A most interesting fact is that the nestlings just hatched out 

 of their shells, have perfectly formed spoon bills as seen in plate 

 II. This must indicate that this species is a very old one. 



The two plates are from drawings by Mr. E. N. Fischer. The 

 figures are all natural size. 



NEST LIFE OF THE SCREECH OWL. 1 



BY ALTHEA R. SHERMAN. 



In large boxes put up for the accommodation of Woodpeckers 

 lived the Screech Owls from whose nest lives these studies were 

 made. It was in one of these soap-boxes, nailed against the trunk 

 of a willow tree that the first of these Owls was seen on March 24, 

 1909; evidently it had been there in January of that year, as the 

 feathers of a luckless Bohemian Waxwing remained to prove. 

 A Screech Owl was seen to spend the day there again on March 

 30 and on April 2 and 18. On the morning of April 5 a rufous 

 feather fluttering from the entrance hole of the west flicker-box 

 in the barn betrayed the nesting place. The bottom of the box 

 was covered with excelsior in which the female had scratched a 

 hollow in the corner farthest from the entrance, where she was 

 sitting on four fresh eggs. For six days the nest was closely 

 watched and the following facts were ascertained. The meat- 

 offerings brought by her mate and dropped through the hole for 

 his divinity within consisted of a white-footed mouse on two of 

 the mornings, and a Junco on two of them, while on the remaining 

 two mornings nothing was there. On two evenings the female 

 went out early before the nest watch began ; on other two she went 

 out after dark alone, and on two evenings her mate came after 

 dark to the hole and called her with a very low cry, which once was 

 answered by a low sharp note from the female, who on both even- 



1 Copyrighted , 1911, by Althea R. Sherman. 



