8 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



pair of barn owls on the south side of Staten Island in 1906 and 

 previous years. Mr. Irving said that these " monkey-faced owls " 

 had laid two sets of eggs in one season, but this is to be 

 doubted, especially in view of the fact that their young usually 

 remain in or about the nest for two months. 



Barn owls in this vicinity are apparently somewhat migratory, 

 and the Staten Island birds were first noticed in the spring of 

 1907, on March 30. On May 5 there were three eggs on the 

 floor of the pigeon loft where they breed. No nest was built, the 

 eggs being deposited on the layer of rubbish, composed to a great 

 extent of disintegrated owl pellets, which covered it. Unfortu- 

 nately Mr. Galloway moved away soon afterward, and on our sub- 

 sequent visits we had some difficulty in gaining admittance to the 

 building. On July 7, however, Mr. Howard Cleaves and I were 

 allowed to enter. One old owl and four young were in the loft, 

 and an addled egg was discovered in the rubbish. The old owl 

 flew out, but the young ones fought with their claws, snapped 

 their beaks, and made a loud hissing noise. Mr. Cleaves made 

 some fine photographs of the happy family seated on a dog 

 house, and we departed, not to return until August 24. The 

 young birds had then left the barn, having been last seen there, 

 so I was told, about a week previously. 



We trust, nevertheless, that no harm has come to them, and 

 that they will continue to inhabit their pigeon loft in future 

 years, perhaps even after the less domestic barred owl has been 

 permanently banished from our island by real estate " improve- 

 ments." 



