166 Sherman, Nest Life of the Screech Owl. [April 



After the very sudden and unexpected going out of the mother 

 bird on the first day of May she was not seen to leave the nest 

 until the seventh evening of the month: from that date onward 

 for a week she sometimes staid in the nest until part of the weigh- 

 ing was done, or if out, she came in and remained with her nest- 

 lings. On the 17th of May she did not go out when the owlets 

 were removed from the nest although two of us were in the blind 

 engaged in conversation, but she uttered a mournful, tremulous 

 cry two or three times. After that in the evening she left the nest 

 when the blind was visited. At times one parent would come to 

 the windows, which at night were covered with heavy pasteboard 

 shades, where it would cling calling to the young that were out 

 of their nest. On a few nights a sound was made that resembled 

 the chattering of human teeth. After the 18th of the month the 

 expression of displeasure, displayed by the parents, grew more 

 emphatic evening after evening. At first the demonstrations, 

 made at a distance, were limited to snappings of the bill and a noise 

 resembling the yelp of a dog: gradually feigned attacks on the 

 person of the enemy increased in number and came nearer. The 

 bird from some perch in a tree would describe an elliptical path 

 in the air, coming with savage snappings until overhead and about 

 ten feet up, it would utter one weird eh-hue cry before it swung 

 back to its tree. In this long-drawn ch-hve note it was not so much 

 what the owl said as the tone of voice in which it was said that 

 engendered cutis anserina popularly known as "goose-flesh." 



It was a keen disappointment that there were not more oppor- 

 tunities for the study of the food habits of the Screech Owls. In 

 the forty pieces of game found in the nest there were eight birds, 

 three frogs, one common shrew, and twenty-eight mice: the last 

 named were chiefly meadow mice with two or three house mice. 

 Enough of the meadow mice were weighed to ascertain their 

 average weight to be upward of 600 grains. After leaving their 

 nest on May 29, the oldest ones being thirty-two days old, the 

 owlets were caught and kept in captivity several days. Their 

 food was weighed and it was learned that when fed to satiety each 

 one consumed meat equal in weight to one meadow mouse. This 

 estimate may fairly indicate that the forty pieces mentioned were 

 nearly one-eighth of the amount eaten by the entire family during 



