Widmann — A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri. 109 



to Louisiana, on the Atlantic coast to Virginia. Being a 

 great hider in day-time, this little owl is regarded as rare 

 everywhere. 



The Saw- whet has repeatedly been taken, alive and dead, 

 within the city limits of St. Louis in winter, and is reported as a 

 rare winter visitant by Mr. Worthen, Mr. Praeger and Mr. Cur- 

 rier, but a late date, April 16, 1893, given by the latter, would 

 perhaps indicate that the bird was on its breeding ground when 

 captured. That it breeds occasionally in Missouri is demon- 

 strated by the discovery of a nest with three young ones, in the 

 spring of 1904, by Mr. John E. Miiller of Bluffton, Montgomery 

 Co. 



*373. Megascops asio (Linn.). Screech Owl. 



Strix asio. Scops asio. Strix naevia. Surnia naevia. Ephialtes asio. 

 Mottled Owl. 



Geog. Dist. — Of the nine subspecies, this is the one which in- 

 habits the eastern United States from Georgia northward to 

 Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Ontario and southeastern Mani- 

 toba; west in the United States to about the 100th meridian. 

 Generally non-migratory, breeding throughout its range. 



In all parts of Missouri a well-known resident, now apparently 

 preferring the vicinity of human habitation and nesting wher- 

 ever it finds a suitable site in tree-holes or about buildings, using, 

 if permitted, bird-boxes for nesting and roosting. When liv- 

 ing in a suburb of St. Louis the writer reared a nestful of downy 

 young (5), which were presented to him by Mr. Philo W. Smith, 

 Jr. When they were fully fledged and supposedly able to care 

 for themselves, they were given their freedom. A few of them 

 remained on the place, often coming to the lawn on summer 

 evenings, in pursuit of locusts, beetles, katidids, etc. During 

 the winter they used some of the bird-boxes for a roost. The 

 following spring a pair made a nest in a compartment of a ten- 

 room fancy bird-house, about twelve feet from our house, and 

 successfully raised a brood, undisturbed by the numerous ten- 

 ants of some of the other compartments in the same bird-house, 

 namely, a pair of Flickers, a pair of House Wrens, two pairs of 

 Martins and a few English Sparrows. When the fancy bird- 

 house was demolished by a severe wind-storm, a suitable box 

 with a three-inch circular hole was set up in a tree near the 

 house, which the Screech Owls continued to occupy for several 

 years. 



