568 LITTLE OWL. 



A nest of our Little Owl, which I found near the city of Natchez, was 

 placed in the broken stump of a small decayed tree, not more than four 

 feet from the ground. I was attracted to it by the snoring notes of the 

 young, which sounded as if at a considerable elevation; and I was so 

 misled by them that, had not my dog raised himself to smell at the hole 

 where the brood lay concealed, I might not liave discovered them. In 

 this instance the number was five. It was in the beginning of June, and 

 the little things, which were almost ready to fly, looked exceedingly neat 

 and beautiful. Their parents I never saw, although I frequently visited, 

 the nest before they left it. The Little Owl breeds more abundantly 

 near the shores of the Atlantic than in the interior of the country, and is 

 frequent in the swamps of the States of Maryland and New Jersey, du- 

 ring the whole year. Wherever I have found the young or the eggs 

 placed in a hollow tree, they were merely deposited on the rotten parti- 

 cles of wood ; and when in an old Crow's nest, the latter did not appear 

 to have undergone any repair. 



This species evinces a strong and curious propensity to visit the inte- 

 rior of our cities. I have known some caught alive in the Philadelphia 

 Museum, as well as in that of Baltimore ; and, whilst at Cincinnati, I 

 had one brought to me which had been taken from the edge of a cradle, 

 in which a child lay asleep, to the no small astonishment of the mother. 



Being quite nocturnal, it shews great uneasiness when disturbed by 

 day, and flies off^ in a hurried uncertain manner, throwing itself into the 

 first covert it meets with, where it is not difficult to catch it, provided the 

 necessary caution and silence be used. Towards dusk it becomes full of 

 animation, flies swiftly, gliding, as it were, over the low grounds, like a 

 little spectre, and pounces on small quadrupeds and birds with the quick- 

 ness of thought. Its common cry at night resembles that of the Euro- 

 pean Scops Owl, but is more like the dull sounds of a whistle than that 

 of Owls generally is. 



In aU parts of the United States where this species occurs it is a per- 

 jnanent resident. 



