122 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



tremulous, plaintive, mournful whistle. This note seems to be a hunting 

 cry or a sociable halloo as well as a mating call, for it is heard at all times 

 of year. I have often called them to me by imitation of their notes, and 

 have seen them strike mice and crickets and cicadas immediately after they 

 had called. This note sounds mournful, melancholy and dismal to those 

 who are in a mournful state of mind, yet in fact has nothing to do with sor- 

 row or melancholy in the bird's sensorium, but is as much the expression 

 of a healthy, happy, vigorous and sociable personality as the chickadee's 

 cheery note. By watching these little gnomes calling back and forth to 

 each other and plying their helpful trade about my camp, I have come 

 to welcome their notes and their presence as heartily as the Robin and 

 the Phoebe. Their voices are heard not only in the evening but at day- 

 break, and throughout the moonlight nights. Sometimes where mice 

 and insects are scarce, the screech owls become addicted to the bird-killing 

 habit, when the settler must use his best intelligence as judge and 

 executioner. 



Like other species, the little Screech owl, when approached, instinc- 

 tively assumes a curious appearance to escape observation. The upper 

 figure in Mr Fuertes's painting . (plate 56) is by no means an extreme 

 illustration of this attitude. While passing through a thicket, I once 

 came upon an old Screech owl and four young just from the nest, all seated 

 in a dense shrub slightly above my reach. They had posed in the most 

 fantastic shapes and resembled jagged strips of bark or torn pieces of 

 a hornet's nest more than birds. One that was captured puffed himself 

 up like a great cat and hissed and opened his eyes and snapped his beak 

 in a fierce and threatening manner. 



The Screech owl pairs in March and April. The site chosen for 

 incubation is a hollow tree, a deserted Flicker's hole, or a cavity erected 

 for the owl's accommodation. The eggs are laid on the chips or rubbish 

 in the bottom of the hollow, 4 to 7 in number, usually 4 or 5, white as with 

 all owls, and average about 1.42 by 1.18 inches in size. In this State 

 they are laid from the 1st to the 25th of April. 



