THE OOLOGIST 



226 



I noticed a cavity in a dwarfed Cot- 

 tonwood near the ground so I looked 

 in, Mrs. Kennicott was there and un- 

 der her were several little Owlets, lit- 

 tle balls of downy cotton, with their 

 eyes unopened. I passed on and did 

 not molest them for what was the 

 use. I told a rancher of my find, he 

 said, "why didn't you kill the whole 

 family?" Now what satisfaction 

 would there be in destroying and 

 where would I receive any benefit, al- 

 so I believe the rancher receives lit- 

 tle harm, if any, and more or less 

 good, from the Kennicott Screech 

 Owl, though they do destroy the song 

 birds. 



The spring following I decided to 

 go earlier and so on April 9, with my 

 climbers, saw, etc., I again visited this 

 locality. 1 looked into several sus- 

 picious looking holes that looked 

 good, but nothing doing, until I 

 reached the same old tree of the year 

 before. Sure enough Mrs. Kennicott 

 was at home, standing on my tip toes 

 and poking gently with a stick 1 

 roused Mrs. Kennicott from her slum- 

 bers. She didn't appear in a hurry 

 to depart and snapped at my gloved 

 hand as 1 tried to pry her loose. 

 With my saw I enlarged the opening, 

 she paying little attention to the 

 noise and the sawdust. As I reached 

 in she scrambled up to the hollow 

 above her head, exposing five pure 

 white eggs, a nice addition to my col- 

 lection. It took considerable poking 

 to bring her down from above, but I 

 finally succeeded and I held her up 

 by the wings to inspect her beauty. 

 Despite the rancher's argument to 

 kill 'em all, 1 let her go. But her 

 nest showed the awful havoc she had 

 played with other members of the 

 feathered tribe. Bunches of feathers 

 under the eggs of larks, flickers and 

 other songsters showed only to well 

 some of the habits of the Kennicottii. 



Of course these feathers had been ac- 

 cumulating for several years, as no 

 doubt this particular tree had been 

 the nesting site of numerous broods 

 of Owlets. Bones of frogs and mice 

 were there in abundance, also a very 

 Owly smell. 



On April 11th, I found the second 

 set of four eggs in a dead cottonwood 

 stub, twelve feet up, nest about the 

 same cavity only deeper, but plenty 

 of bones and feathers. Old lady at 

 home as usual and winked and 

 blinked, and uttered a shrill cry as 

 1 held her up for inspection. 



On April 14th, while walking along 

 a small creek I found my third set 

 of four. I noticed a cavity about six- 

 ty feet up, in a cottonwood and de- 

 cided to look in, though I had climbed 

 some other hard climbs, with no suc- 

 cess and was getting weary. The 

 sixty feet seemed one hundred, but 

 on arriving at my destination, and 

 poking a stick into the two foot cav- 

 ity, I was rewarded. Mrs. Kennicott 

 came to the opening and right into 

 my hands and after inspection was 

 duly let go. The four eggs were 

 dirty, evidently a fifth having been 

 broken, but fresh, as were the preced- 

 ing two sets. But the stench was 

 overpowering so taking my clutch, I 

 hastily descended. 



I moved away from that vicinity 

 shortly afterward and as there are no 

 trees in this neighborhood have had 

 no more opportunities to visit Mrs. 

 Kennicott. However, we have a 

 number of desert birds, and will en- 

 deavor to write on them later. 



F. R. Decker. 

 Prosser, Wash. 



SHORT BIRD NOTES 



From Port Hope, Ontario. 

 I thought some of the readers of 

 THE OOLOGIST would be interested 

 about the birds around Port Hope. 



