THE SAW-WHET AND OTHER OWLS. 219 



tree, you will likely find the resting-place of this, the 

 smallest of our owls. A remnant of a leaf-nest, made by 

 the gray squirrels as a winter home, is likewise a favorite 

 roost, and from it the watchful little owlet scans the im- 

 mediate neighborhood, and knows just where he is likely 

 to find a shrew, sparrow, field-mouse, or Hesperomys. It 

 is not his habit, ordinarily, to forage by day, but he is 

 not oblivious to the diurnal movements of his neighbors, 

 nevertheless. If occasion requires, saw-whet will sally 

 out in broad daylight, moving with a noiseless, bat-like 

 flight, but with all the confidence of a sparrow-hawk. It 

 is correct, in a degree, to consider this owl nocturnal in 

 its habits, but not so strictly so that his presence by day 

 should excite any surprise on the part of the beholder. 



In speaking of the allied Tengmalm's owl and of this 

 species, Dr. Coues remarks that " they are among the 

 most perfectly nocturnal birds of the family." * If by 

 " nocturnal " is meant that these birds are more active as 

 the absence of light becomes more marked; that their 

 activity increases with departing daylight, then it is not 

 true of them. To say that owls are crepuscular, partial 

 to cloudy days, and delight in clear moonlight nights, is 

 true, just as it is of the herons, night-hawks, whippoorwill, 

 and chimney-swifts ; and, among mammals, of the bats. 

 I am disposed, furthermore, to believe that their vision 

 is not as good as that of the night-heron or of a bat on, 

 comparatively speaking, dark nights. I find in our up- 

 land woods, if the day is cloudy, that the long-eared owl 

 moves about quite as freely as any of our hawks ; and 

 in the meadows, especially during September, when the 

 reed-birds congregate in the marshes, the short-eared or 

 marsh-owl is about by day, and skims quietly over the 



* " Birds of Northwest." Page 314. Washington, 1874 (Government 

 Printing Office.) 



