THE YOUNG OOLOG 



Vol. 1. No. 4. GAINES, N. Y., AUG., 1884. 



( Published Monthly. 

 1 50c. Pek Year. 



The Screech Owl. 



After few days the weather grew intense- 

 ly cold, the thermometer running ten de- 

 grees below zero. Making a professional 

 visit on one of tliese bitter days, as I drove 

 into the barnyard to unharness my horse, 

 I noticed the result of quite a little tragedy 

 in the animal kingdom. Some fifteen feet 

 up the side of the barn hung a Screech 

 Owl {Scops asio), caught by one foot under 

 a large batten partly sprung off from the 

 building. It was frozen stiff, its eyes 

 standing out white and ghastly with the 

 expansion of the frost ; and just above it, 

 seemingly caught under the same batten, 

 and frozen in like manner, was a common 

 mouse ; thus both had been turned into 

 ice in the very act of the chase. 



This bird is abundant here throughout 

 the year, but is more noticeable in winter, 

 as it then approaches the barn and the out- 

 buildings, probably in search of food and 

 shelter. In late summer and early autumn 

 it may be heard about the orchard or the 

 edge of the wood ; in the evening, uttering 

 a soft whinny, not at all to be compared, 

 however, to "Screeching." Thoreau, des- 

 cribing the soundfe within hearing of his 

 hut at Walden Lake, gives special promi- 

 nence to the vocal performance of this 

 bird. He says: " It is no honest and blunt 

 tu-ioldt, tu-ioho gf the poets, but, without 

 jesting, a most solemn, graveyard ditty, 

 the mutual consolations of suicide lovers 

 remembering the pangs and the delights of 

 supernal love in the infernal groves. Yet 

 I love to hear their wailing, their doleful 

 responses, trilled along the road-side, re- 

 minding me sometimes of music and sing- 

 ing birds ; as if it were the dark and tear- 

 ful side of music, the regrets and sighs 

 that would feign be sung. They are the 

 spirits, the low spirits of melancholy fore- 

 bodings of fallen souls that once in human 



shape night-walked the earth, and did the 

 deeds of darkness, now expiating their sins 

 with their wailing hymns or threnodies in 

 the scenery of their transgressions. They 

 give me a new sense of the variety and ca- 

 pacity of that nature which is our common 

 dwelling. OJi-o-o-o-o that I never had been 

 bor-r-r-r-r-n! sighs one on this side of the 

 pond, and circles with the restlessness of 

 of despair to some new perch on the gray 

 oaks. Then — that I never had been bor-r-r- 

 r-n! echoes another on the further side 

 with tremulous sincerity, and bor-r-r-r-n ! 

 comes from far in Lincoln woods." 



About nine inches long, with 'large ear- 

 tufts, ash-gTay above, with a lighter shade 

 of the same beneath, all over mottled and 

 streaked with blacli, the black streaks be- 

 neath again crossed with black and accom- 

 panied with reddish tints, white markings 

 on the shoulders— sometimes the general 

 ash-gray above mentioned being entirely 

 replaced by reddish ; this bird can never 

 be mistaken. H. D. Minot says : " The 

 eggs are laid in the hollow of a tree, an 

 apple-tree being frequently selected, in 

 which are often placed a few simple ma- 

 terials, such as leaves or dried grass. The 

 eggs, of which four are laid about the 

 middle of April, average 1.35x1.30 of an 

 inch. They are white, and nearly spher- 

 ical." The almost round, white eggs, 

 generally pure white and about equal at 

 both ends, and with a fine ' surface, are 

 characteristic of the Owls. 



Mr. W. Perham (at Tyngsboro, Mass.) 

 often secures the nest of this species by 

 on trees in the woods ' ' sections of hollow 

 trunks, boarded up at the open ends, with 

 entrance-holes cut in the sides," the bird 

 appropriating these instead of natural 

 cavities or deserted Woodpeckers' nests, 

 " both as roosting and nesting places." 



As with the Owls in general, this species, 

 pure white. Being 



when in the down is 



