THE SCREECH OWL. 



(Megascops asio.) 



"The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold." 



This, as all of us know who have really 

 seen the Owl, is purely a poetic fancy, a 

 pathetic fancy one might really say, for 

 a particularly sensitive and sympathetic 

 person who had never seen what a snug, 

 cozy-looking body the little Screech Owl 

 is, but had heard through the night that 

 shivery cry of his, might waste a good 

 deal of pity on the poor freezing creat- 

 ure. Every night and morning down on 

 the Point I hear him shuddering as if 

 old-fashioned ague-chills were chasing 

 each other up and down his back-bone. 

 These noises, made from the hollow in 

 the tree where he has his home, are not 

 loud enough, however, to attract much 

 attention, and so long as the Owl in- 

 dulges in them only, he can dwell in 

 the neighborhood a good while without 

 advertising his retreat. As a matter of 

 fact, we have few less obtrusive neigh- 

 bors during the greater part of the year 

 than is the little Screech Owl. It is 

 doubtful if more than a few of the great 

 throngs who pass through the Wooded 

 Island in Jackson Park, Chicago, are 

 even aware that that charming spot is 

 the home of several of these creatures, 

 whose first name is enough to make one 

 jump. 



One of the peculiarities of the carniv- 

 orous creatures is their possession in the 

 fullest degree of the possibilities of sound 

 and silence. Our Owl is no' exception to 

 the case. He has a good voice, but he 

 knows when to keep still, for to use it all 

 the year round and on alLoccasions would 

 cause an immediate exodus of all the rats 

 and mice of the neighborhood, so he 

 usually keeps his vocal organs pretty well 

 in restraint and there are few other 

 creatures that can go as softly as he. 



There are times, however, on warm 

 nights of spring, when he feels that his 

 voice must really have exercise so he, 

 with several happy companions, gets out 

 for a regular lark. It may be that, like 

 Gideon's army or the troops that passed 

 through Birnam wood, he has some 

 scheme for increasing his apparent 

 abundance. At any rate, the air seems 



full of Owl, and you get it, "biff" on one 

 side of the head, and then on the other, 

 with silent and surprising blows, strong 

 enough to knock off your hat or cave it 

 in ; and there are at times yells that make 

 your heart stand still. If you retreat you 

 will be followed some distance. I have 

 always suspected that these attacks 

 occurred in the vicinity of a nest, but am 

 not sure. 



Screech Owls are more numerous than 

 , is generally supposed, partly because 

 there are two styles of plumage, the red 

 and the gray, and many people where 

 both are found, call one the red owl, or 

 another the little gray owl, as the case 

 may be, the one more numerous being 

 considered the Screech Owl. This Owl 

 has quite an extensive range, which 

 includes temperate North America, east 

 of the Great Plains and from the south- 

 ern portion of the British Possessions 

 southward nearly to the Gulf of Mexico. 

 It is with us nearly always, for it is 

 quite generally resident throughout its 

 range, nesting in hollow trees and often 

 m woodpeckers' holes. The Screech 

 Owls seem most numerous in winter 

 because at that time their chief food, field 

 mice and insects, is scarce and they must 

 seek their food in more public places. 

 Then, too, they seek shelter in the build- 

 ings of man, and they have even been 

 known to fly through open windows in 

 houses. 



It is quite fortunate that this Owl is 

 so easily hidden away, so that he can 

 become numerous, for he is one of the 

 best mousers we have, and one of the 

 best solutions of the English sparrow 

 problem. He does not make an attract- 

 ive pet, as he is too sleepy during the 

 daytime, and during waking hours is a 

 little too ferocious in aspect to encourage 

 much petting. One of my early mem- 

 ories is that of helping find one in a hol- 

 low tree. We boxed the Owl up at first 

 with the intention of making a pet of it ; 

 then under the mistaken impression that 

 it was a bird that ought not to be encour- 

 aged to live, we decided to give it to the 

 cat. We soon found that we had made 



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