156 Sherman, Nest Life of the Screech Owl. LApril 



ings, almost immediately went out to join him in the search for 

 refreshments. This little incident may be of interest to two 

 classes of people, the sentimentalist and the evolutionist, who 

 may be seeking the missing link between the Screech Owl and the 

 young man who calls to take his lady-love out for ice-cream. 



The evening of April 10 was one of those upon which the female 

 had gone out early before the nest was visited. x\ watch of more 

 than two hours was maintained in order to learn the length of her 

 absence from her eggs. In the meantime a violent wind storm 

 sprung up, that continued all night and the following day, wrecking 

 wind-mills and some buildings. Once the scratching of the bird's 

 claws against the barn was heard, but she failed to come in, proba- 

 bly the fury of the storm prevented her making the home port; 

 however it may have been, she did not return to her eggs, and the 

 history of this nest was closed. 



In the following June a nest-box was built into one corner of my 

 blind in the hopes that it might serve an anxious pair of Flickers 

 that were house-hunting. At the same time the future needs of 

 the Screech Owls were kept in mind, as this new nest is just eighty- 

 five feet from the box on the willow in which the male Owl had his 

 head-quarters. The nest in the blind has a depth of twenty inches 

 and a bottom area of eight by twelve inches. The bottom was 

 covered with a thick layer of sawdust over which was spread a 

 deep bed of excelsior. Very unfortunately for the most satis- 

 factory sort of observations the top of the nest comes to the roof 

 of the blind so that the two peep-holes from necessity were made 

 in the sides. There is a hand-hole also, which is covered by a door. 



In 1910 the Owls were not seen until the sixteenth day of March, 

 when the male sat in his box on the willow, and the female with a 

 mouse beside her in the nest in the blind, where the first egg was 

 laid on March 27. Until that time came these birds were seen in 

 their respective boxes on but four days. Meanwhile the box in 

 the blind and the nest box in the barn showed signs of nocturnal 

 visits by the scratched up condition of the excelsior in them. 



The first egg was found in the nest on the morning of March 27, 

 and was still alone on the evening of the 29th. The following day 

 the nest was not visited, the only day in two months and a half, 

 when visits were omitted. No doubt the second egg was laid 



