298 BENDIRE, West and Eggs of the Screech Owl. [October 
DESCRIPTION OF THE NEST AND EGGS OF VWEGA- 
SCOPS ASIO MAX WELLIAA, THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAIN SCREECH OWL. 
BY CAPT. CHARLES E. BENDIRE. 
THE CREDIT of the discovery of the nest and egg of this race, 
the handsomest of the genus A/egascops, belongs, I believe, to Mr. 
A.W. Anthony, one of our younger and most energetic natu- 
ralists, who has done excellent work in his line, as well as in other 
branches of natural history, in various portions of the West, and has 
generously donated through the writer a number of his rarest and 
most interesting specimens to the National Museum collection at 
Washington. He writes me as follows regarding this species- 
“On May 4, 1853, while collecting on the Platte River, about six 
miles from Denver, Colorado, my attention was attracted by the 
hammering of a Red-shafted Flicker, and pushing my way through 
a very thick growth of willows and small cottonwoods, I found 
the bird at work on a cottonwood, where he was excavating a 
nesting site. The tree was avery large one; its top had been 
partly broken off, about twelve feet up, blown over, and some of 
its limbs rested on the ground. As I climbed up, via the leaning 
top to the Colaftes burrow, which was located in that part of the 
trunk of the tree still standing upright, a Rocky Mountain 
Screech Owl flew out from a knot hole not before noticed and 
dashed almost in my face, lit on a tree within six feet of me, and 
after staring at me in amazement for a few minutes, dropped down 
and out of sight in the dense undergrowth in the neighborhood. 
The two burrows were about four feet apart, nearly on a level 
with each other, but on opposite sides of the tree.” The Owl’s 
nest was in an old knot hole about fifteen inches in length and 
judging from a rough sketch sent me by Mr. Anthony at the time, 
the base of the nest was almost on a level with the entrance. It 
contained three young about a week old and an addledegg. This 
egg was not found until his return to the nest a second time a few 
hours afterwards, when one of the parents was caught and a 
careful examination of the nest made. This, if it can be called a 
nest, was composed of bits of dry rotten wood, a few feathers of 
small birds, and a good many fish scales. The tree was standing 
within a hundred yards of the river. Fish of various species 
4 
