35° 



ird - Lore 



St. Lucie River near junction with the 

 Indian Kiver. This bird seemed to en- 

 deavor to keep apart from the numerous 

 Scaup Ducks round about it. — Lester W. 

 Smith, Mcriden, Conn. 



The Screech Owl as a Sparrow Trap 



The ability of tlie Screech Owl to serve 

 as a Sparrow-trap was demonstrated by an 

 Owl which sought winter quarters in the 

 hay-mow of our barn during the winter 

 of 191Q-20. 



It was at Thanksgiving time, or there- 

 abouts, that I first saw the Screech Owl in 

 the hajr-mow. We had had a severe snow- 

 storm, followed by intensely cold weather, 

 and the Owl had doubtless decided that the 

 barn would make a good place of refuge 

 from the storm. 



I saw the Owl in the mow many times 

 after the occasion of our first meeting, for 

 it was usually present about dusk, when 

 I went to the mow to put down the night 

 supply of hay. The little fellow was always 

 on the lookout and saw me as soon as I 

 reached the mow. After a thorough look 

 at mc, which necessitated twisting its head 

 at various angles, it usually became alarmed 

 and commenced filing from one end of the 

 barn to the other, but often stopping at 

 one end to give me another long look. Very 

 often it became so excited that it flew out 

 of one of the windows, into the night, 

 probably to return later. When flying I 

 could hardly believe that such large wings 

 belonged to as small a bird as the Screech 

 Owl seemed when perched on a girder of 

 the barn. When sitting, the Screech Owl 

 looks about as large as one's fist, but in the 

 air it takes on much larger proportions. 



Before the advent of the Screech Owl 

 the barn was always filled with English 

 Sparrows; their noisy chatter filled the 

 place from morning till night. Soon after 

 we learned that the Screech Owl was living 

 with us, we noticed a decided decrease in 

 the number of English Sparrows around 

 the farm buildings. The Sparrows refused 

 to go near the barn and dug tunnels in a 

 nearby straw-pile where they stayed a good 

 share of the time. Some of these tunnels 



were filled with feathers. A headless 

 Sparrow was found lying on a girder in 

 the hay-mow. Such things had never 

 happened before and there could be but 

 one reason for their occurrence — the 

 Screech Owl was hunting. 



At the beginning of the winter the flock 

 of English Sparrows on our farm numbered 

 about two hundred and in less than two 

 months it had been reduced to less than 

 twenty birds. Small wonder that the 

 Sparrows became horror-stricken and did 

 not frequent the barn as usual ! The Owl 

 in the dark of night could search out the 

 Sparrow's favorite roosting-places, pluck 

 a Sparrow from its perch, and fly away 

 before its presence was noted, to return 

 for another when the first hapless victim 

 had been disposed of. 



This Owl rendered us great service dur- 

 ing its stay with us. English Sparrows are 

 a great nuisance on the farm for they are 

 continually building bulky nests in hay 

 racks, in- the wheels of rolling doors, and 

 other places where they must be cleared 

 out often, to say nothing of their habit of 

 appropriating houses intended for other 

 birds. 



After a time the Owl became accustomed 

 to my being in the hay-mow and did not 

 fly out. 



During January (1920) the Screech 

 Owl's visits to the hay-mow became less 

 frequent and finally ceased altogether. 



Near the farm buildings is a grove of 

 tamaracks and willows where a family of 

 Screech Owls is reared nearly every sum- 

 mer. I presume this particular owl was a 

 member of one of these broods. 



Save for this one species, Owls are very 

 rare in this part of the country, but it is 

 no wonder, for the average farmer is 

 ignorant of the value of our Owls and 

 thinks he is doing the community a good 

 turn when he shoots one. The writer has 

 seen only two Owls, other than the Screech 

 Owl, in the last three years. One was a 

 Snowy Owl (November 22, 1918) and the 

 other was a Barred Owl (September 27, 

 1919). The Barred Owl was shot by a 

 hunter shortly after. Owing to their noc- 

 turnal habits, probably a good many 



