NORTH AMERICAN HIItDS. 



239 



north into British America; southward in wooded, mountainous regions, into Mexi- 

 co. Its shrill, harsh notes, resembling the filing of a saw, have occasioned its name. 

 The bird has been found breeding in Massachusetts, Maine, New York, etc., nesting 

 in holes of trees, artificial nests, and in the old nests of herons. Mr. William 

 Brewster records a set of four eggs taken April 5, near Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, 

 by Mr. W. Perham; they were deposited in artificial nests made from sections of 

 hollow trunks, nailed to trees in woods. The sizes of four eggs are given as fol- 

 lows: 1.12x.95, 1.21X.98, 1.25x.96, 1.25x.97. Other eggs were taken from similar nests 

 by Mr. Perham. Near Utica, New York, Mr. Egbert Bagg, on the dates of April 7, 

 21 and 30, 1886, found four sets of eggs of this species; two sets of five and two of 

 seven eggs each. They were taken from deserted woodpeckers' excavations in tree 

 stubs, ranging from twenty-two to fifty feet from the ground. The eggs were laid on 

 the rotten chips in the cavities, and a few feathers of the Owl were present. The 

 eggs are white, nearly elliptical; the average size is 1.20x1.02. The number ranges 

 from four to seven. On May 28, 1889, my friend, J. E. Gould, shot two young birds 

 of this species in a woods near Worthington, Ohio, about five miles north of Co- 

 lumbus. These had just left the nest. About a mile and a half distant, in an en- 

 tirely different strip of woods, another specimen was observed the same day. On 

 June 2, returning to the place where he had taken the two young, three more were 

 observed, sitting in the branches of the same sapling from which the two were shot 

 on May 28. One of these was secured with a stick, the other 2 were allowed to remain. 

 These were doubtless a brood of five, and the one observed in another woods mak- 

 ing six in all. There is little doubt that the three young observed on June 2 were 

 not strong enough to leave the nest when Mr. Gould visited the place on May 28. A 

 dead mouse was observed hanging in a crotch of the sapling where the Owls were 

 perched, which was doubtless placed there by one of the parent birds. Two of 

 these specimens, kindly presented to me by Mr. Gould, are in my collection; the 

 third is in his possession. That the Acadian Owl breeds in Central Ohio there is 

 now no longer any doubt, and the securing of its eggs is only a question of time. 



373. SCREECH OWL. Meyascops asio (Linn.) Geog. Dist. Eastern United 

 states, north to British Provinces; west 

 to the Great Plains, south to Georgia. 



The Mottled Owl is resident 

 throughout Eastern United States and 

 Canada; west to the Rocky Mountains; 

 on the limits of its range shades into 

 several varieties. The eggs of the dif- 

 ferent varieties of Mcya scops are not 

 distinguishable. The nest of the Little 

 Horned or Red Owl, as it isoften called, 

 is made in a hollow tree or stump, 

 sometimes in the topmost corner inside 

 of an old barn or shed. I have found 

 several nests between the oroken sid- 

 ing of ice-houses, along streams. 

 The materials used are i few sticks, 

 leaves, feathers, etc., on which the eggs <ci^ 

 are laid. In the month of April, 1885, a 

 farmer brought me nine young, with 

 the parent birds, which he had taken 

 from a hollow tree. This number of 

 young is, of course, extraordinary for 

 this species. One of the old birds was 373. SCREECH OWL. 



