BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 147 



dull days and foggy evenings they were flying- about in all directions. 

 Never in all that time have I missed any poultry or have they inflicted 

 any injury on anything of value. 



" The first I noticed of their presence was the discovery of quite a pile 

 of what appeared to be mice hair and bones, and on investigation found 

 the Norway fir was the roosting place of to me at that time a vast num- 

 ber of owls. They had ejected the bolus of hair and bones apparently of 

 an army of tree-eating destructive mice, aiding the fruit-grower against 

 one of the worst and most inveterate enemies. * * * * Their 

 merits would fill sheets; the demerits nil." 



Although it is true that the Long-eared Owls at times do construct 

 their own nests, I am inclined to believe that these birds, in this region 

 at least, prefer to occupy the deserted nests of other birds. I have on 

 several occasions found the Long-eared Owls breeding, and always 

 observed that they occupied the abandoned nests of crows or hawks. 

 Audubon says : " The Long-eared Owl is careless as to the situation in 

 which its young are to be reared, and generally accommodates itself 

 with the abandoned nest of some other bird that proves of sufficient 

 size, whether it be high or low, in the fissure of a rock or on the ground. 

 Sometimes, however, it makes a nest itself ; and this I found to be the 

 case in one instance near the Juniata river, in Pennsylvania, where it 

 was composed of green twigs, with the leaflets adhering, and lined with 

 fresh grass and wool, but without any feathers." Of all our owls this 

 species is, without doubt, the most serviceable to the farmer and horti- 

 culturist, as it preys almost wholly on field-mice and other destructive 

 little rodents. Unhappily, during the past four or five years there has 

 been a rapid decrease in the number of these birds in many localities in 

 Pennsylvania ; this diminution, I judge, is largely due to the fact that 

 the stuffed heads of these harmless and beneficial owls make an attrac- 

 tive ornament for lovely woman's headwear. 



The eggs of this bird vary considerably in size ; a small example in 

 rny possession measures about 1| by 1J inches. 



Audubon says : " It preys chiefly on quadrupeds of the genus Arm- 

 cola, and in summer destroys many beetles." 



I have examined the stomachs of twenty-three Long-eared Owls and 

 found that twenty-two of them had fed only on mice ; the other exami- 

 nation made of a specimen taken in the late spring, showed some bee- 

 tles and portions of a small bird. 



