ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 



15 



nesting from May 5 to July 11. The climax of the nesting period was from 

 the middle of May to the middle of June, eleven of the seventeen nests 

 being recorded within these dates. More than half the nests recorded had 

 three eggs each, five had four each and three had five each, no nest con- 

 tained more than that number. 



SCREECH OWL 



On the twentieth of April a screech owl and its nest were found in a 

 hole which for at least two years previous had been the nesting place of 

 flickers. Flickers and fox squirrels spent much time in molesting this owl 

 and it was through their excitement that the nest was located. In trying 

 to find out what was in the nest an awful odor was discovered, which proved 

 to be from a semi-decayed fox squirrel on top of which the owl had depos- 

 ited its three eggs. ' The squirrel, owl, and eggs were removed and eggs 

 replaced, but a few days later the nest was deserted. 



SUMMARY 



It was a surprise to the writer to find that so far as the records obtained 

 in this paper are concerned, about sixty percent of the eggs laid, failed to 

 produce young which lived to the age when they w T ere ready to leave the 

 nest. In other words, the number of young birds successfully reared was 

 about forty per cent of the number of eggs produced. As there were two 

 hundred eight nests recorded and one hundred ninety-five young birds which 

 left the nest successfully, there was an average of less than one young bird 

 to the nest. How many of the young birds were killed after they had left 

 the nest is not known. Judging by observations made on cats as bird 

 destroyers we have a right to believe that many were so destroyed. In 

 addition to cats, snakes, skunks, squirrels, hawks, many other predacious 

 animals, weather and disease tend to increase the mortality list of young 

 birds. Below are some data concerning the destruction of eggs and young : 



