C. H. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. 69 



taken possession and layed two eggs. We then went to the old Owl's 

 nest, where we had found young in 1869 and 1870, and found the old 

 bird on. This nest now contained two eggs in which the young were 

 well advanced so the old birds must have laid again soon after the 

 first nest was robbed. 



"About the first of March, 1873, we again visited the same place 

 but could not find the birds, though I noticed one of their feathers, 

 and, since snow had fallen a day or two before, I know they could not 

 be far off. Finally, on the 13th of March, I found them occupying a 

 nest about two miles from the old place. It was the old nest of a 

 Red-tailed Hawk from which I took three eggs April 29th, 1872. The 

 nest now contained one young Owl, apparently about five or six days 

 old, and one rotten egg. I think the egg had been frozen, for it was 

 badly cracked. I am, of course, unable to say whether or no all the 

 eggs above mentioned were deposited by the same pair of Owls, since 

 three or four old birds have been killed in this vicinity. However, I 

 am quite sure that they all belonged to the same family. I also took 

 their nests in 1874 (Feb. 28), 1875 (took young in May), 1876 (Feb. 

 22), and 1877 (took eggs twice, Feb. 19 and Mar. 23). During the 

 whole time I have known of them they have not built a new nest, 

 but have either occupied the same one for at least three years, or 

 taken some vacant Hawk's nest. 



" To sum up : my experience with Great Horned Owls has been 

 that they lay in old nests of Red-tailed Hawks, in hollow trees, and 

 occasionally in ledges of rocks. I never knew them to build a nest, 

 or to lay more than two eggs, and I have known of many nests not 

 mentioned above." 



146. Scops asio (Linne) Bonaparte. Mottled Owl; Screech Owl. 



A common resident throughout the State. It lays five eggs, in a 

 hollow tree, about the last of April. This is, I think, the most 

 nocturnal of our Owls. At least it can generally be approached in 

 broad day-light more easily than the other species, and seems to be 

 dazzled by the light. It sometimes catches fish through a hole in 

 the ice, like the Snowy Owl.* 



147. Otus VUlgaris, var. WilsoniamiS (Lesson) Allen. Long-eared 

 Owl. 



A common resident. Its large nest is commonly placed on some 

 thick tree generally a pine but sometimes in low bushes. It is 



* Bull. Nutt. Ornithol. Club, vol. ii, No. 3, p. 80. July, 1877. 



