352 LIFE HISTORIES OF NOKTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



till it ends quite rapidly. This call, which is the only one I have ever heard 

 them give, sounds not unlike the noise made during the operation of filing 

 a saw, and it is easily imitated. 



"Both sexes, I think, assist in incubation, and the only apparent con- 

 cern they show when their eggs or young are disturbed is the persistency 

 with which they cling to their nests. They are constant residents of this 

 county and seem not to decrease any in numbers. I have often found mice 

 of different species and sometimes moles in and about their nests, but never 

 any other kind of food. 



"The first nest was taken near Holland Patent, New York, on April 7, 

 1886. It was situated 22 feet above the ground in a dead maple stump, 

 and contained seven eggs ranging from fresh to slightly incubated. The 

 second was found near the same place on April 21, 1886, also in a dead 

 stump 40 feet above ground. It contained five young birds and an egg on 

 the point of hatching. The third was found on the same day near Trenton 

 Falls, New York, likewise in a dead stump 20 feet above the ground. It 

 contained seven eggs which were heavily incubated. The fourth was found 

 at Gang Mills, Herkimer County, New York, April 30, 1886, in a dead 

 stump 50 feet above ground, and likewise contained seveii eggs on the point 

 of hatching. The fifth and last was taken near Holland Patent, New York, 

 April 30, 1889, and was situated in the dead top of a maple tree 63 feet 

 above the ground, and contained four eggs ranging from fresh to slightly 

 incubated. I believe they lay their eggs at intervals of about two days." 



Mr. William Brewster mentions the acquisition of a fully identified set 

 of these eggs, taken by Mr. W.'^Perham, at Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, 

 April 5, 1881, who, he says, takes many eggs of tlie Mottled Owl by hanging 

 up artificial nests in suitable places in the woods. These nests are made from 

 sections of hollow trunks boarded up at the open ends, with entrance holes 

 cut in the sides, and the Owls apparently find them quite to their taste, for 

 they freely appropriate them, both as roosting and nesting places. Sometime 

 late in March of the above mentioned year a pair of Saw-whets took posses- 

 sion of one which was nailed against the trunk of an oak in an extensive piece 

 of woodland. No nest was made, the eggs being simply laid on a few leaves 

 which squii-rels had taken in during the winter. There were four eggs on 

 April 4, and, as the number was not increased, the following day Mr. Perham 

 decided that the set was complete and accordingly took the parent birds with 

 their clutch. He writes me that he made many unsuccessful attempts to catch 

 the female on her eggs. She invariably fl«w out when he began to climb the 

 tree, and he was at length obliged to shoot her. This behavior is strikingly 

 diff'erent from that of the Mottled Owl under similar circumstances, for the 

 sitting female of the latter species can always be taken off her nest by hand. 



