326 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



quired by a pair of these Owls to feed their family, usually consisting of from 

 five to seven young, is almost incredible, and I am certain exceeds the cap- 

 tures of a dozen cats for the same period. The young owlets are always 

 hungry and will eat their own weight in food daily and even more if they 

 can get it. 



In the southern portions of the United States the Barn Owl is resident 

 throughout the year, and at times somewhat gregarious during the winter. 

 Mr. B. W. Evermann states that he saw a flock of more than fifty among the 

 oaks in the Canada de Largo, a few miles from San Buenaventura, Califor- 

 nia, and I believe it is more abundant in southern California than in any 

 other portion of the United States. I met with it several times in the neigh- 

 borhood of Tucson, Arizona, where they were rather rare, but they seem 

 to be pretty generally distributed over this Territory, where they usually 

 live in abandoned mining shafts and prospect holes. Mr. Herbert Brown 

 writes me that he met with five of these birds in an abandoned mine at a 

 depth of 50 feet I saw one actively engaged in hunting along the banks 

 of Rillitto Creek during a cloudy day in December, 1872, and in April of 

 the same year saw another on quite a bright sunny day being chased by 

 either a pair of common Crows or White-necked Ravens. In this vicinity I 

 believe they nest mostly in deserted burrows of badgers, at any rate more 

 than once I saw them sitting in the mouth of such burrows. 



Their nesting sites are quite variable and include all sorts of places, such 

 as natural hollows in trees, holes and cavities in clay banks or cliffs, burrows 

 under ground enlarged to suit their needs, in the sides of old wells, aban- 

 doned mining shafts, dovecots, barns, church steeples, etc., and sometimes, 

 though rarely, in perfectly exposed and unprotected situations, such as the 

 flat roof of an occupied dwelling-house in the midst of a village. Mr. W. O. 

 Emerson, of Hay wards, California, writes me: "A pair of Barn Owls nested 

 the past season (1889) on the bare tin roof running around a cupola of a 

 neighbor's house, which was surrounded by a low railing. Not less than 

 twenty-four eggs were laid and none of them were taken away at any 

 time. There was no nesting material on which the eggs were placed, not 

 even a single twig, and they naturally rolled around on the roof, as it was 

 impossible for the bird to cover them all. When taken down finally and 

 examined, it was found they were all rotten, caused, no doubt, by the in- 

 tense heat from the sun's reflection on the tin roof." 



Where holes in clay banks along rivers and the sides of ravines are 

 used, or the deserted burrows of ground squirrels or larger rodents, they are 

 enlarged to suit their needs, and the birds live in them the year round, carry- 

 ing most of their food to these places to be devoured at leisure. 



In southern California nidification begins occasionally as early as Jan- 

 uary, and while usually but a single brood is raised by these birds in a 

 season, now and then they will rear two. Mr. F. Stephens informed me that 

 a pair hatched a brood of six young in January, 1885, at St. Isabel, Cali- 

 fornia, and on March 25 the bird was sitting on a second set of ten eggs, 



