164 Sherman, Nest Life of the Screech Owl. LApril 



On a few of their earliest days the owlets were weighed in the 

 morning and at night, their increase in weight showing that they 

 were well fed during the day. When the bird from the fourth egg 

 was just hatched, its down being still wet, it was lifted from the 

 nest. It opened its mouth for food and cried; at that time and 

 afterward it was noticed that the young did not open wide their 

 mouths nor throw their heads backward as do the nestlings into 

 whose throats the food is poked, but while begging for food they 

 thrust at the hand with a nuzzling motion very similar to that 

 made by young kittens when searching for dinner. Bits of flesh 

 clipped from meadow mice in store, that were placed in the mouth 

 of a nestling, were swallowed with some difficulty and no apparent 

 relish. Their beaks were stained upon the outside with bloody 

 matter, and as they grew older they would nibble at the mother's 

 bill as if teasing for food. All these things led to a belief that in 

 their earlier days they were fed predigested or partially predigested 

 food, which they pulled from the beak of the mother. After May 10 

 on only three mornings was any food found in the nest; from that 

 date the mother sat with her bill in one corner of the nest, while 

 the nestlings stood on her back, her wings and her tail. It was 

 surmised that she sought this position to free herself from the teas- 

 ing of her young. On the tenth an owlet was seen for the first 

 time pulling at food (the body of a frog), as if eating it. The next 

 morning during observations the mother lifted her head from the 

 corner and appeared to eject something from her mouth; at once 

 the owlets scrambled to the spot and seemed to eat for a few min- 

 utes. At that time a chance to view the nest from the top would 

 have been most fortunate. 



Although Father Owl failed on forty-one out of sixty-four days 

 of nest life to provide a store of food for daytime use it does not 

 follow that the nest was unserved. The food given to the sitting 

 Screech Owl, and later to her young, consisted of moles, house mice, 

 one white-footed mouse, two jumping mice, pocket gophers, ground 

 squirrels, beef both raw and cooked, canned salmon, English 

 Sparrows' eggs and their young, all of which was eaten or at least 

 it disappeared. On May 13 the nestlings were seen eating eggs 

 of the English Sparrow : two days later the oldest owlet was seen to 

 eat portions of a gopher leg; holding the meat with one foot it 



