RED OWL. 59 
rated while dozing in the day. On moonlight evenings this 
slender wailing is kept up nearly until midnight. 
feed Owl. — From the very satisfactory and careful observa- 
tions of Dr. Ezra Michener, of New Garden, Chester County, 
Pennsylvania, published in the eighth volume of the Journal of 
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, it appears 
certain that the Red and Gray “ Screech Owls” of the United 
States are specifically distinct ; he has observed that the Red 
Owls rear young of the same color, and that the Gray Owls 
of the preceding species have also young which are gray and 
mottled from the very nest. Still different as they are in 
plumage, the habits of the species are nearly alike. The 
present inhabits and breeds in most parts of the United States. 
In Pennsylvania they are hatched by the latter end of May, 
breeding in hollow trees. The eggs are about four. 
I have had an opportunity of verifying all that Wilson re- 
lates of the manners of this species ina Red or young Owl, 
taken out of a hollow apple-tree, which I kept for some 
months. A dark closet was his favorite retreat during the 
day. In the evening he became very lively and restless, glid- 
ing across the room in which he was confined, with a side- 
long, noiseless flight, as if wafted by the air alone. At times 
he clung to the wainscot, and, unable to turn, he brought his 
head round to his back, so as to present, by the aid of his 
brilliant eyes, a most spectral and unearthly appearance. As 
the eyes of all the Owls, according to Wilson, are fixed im- 
movably in the socket by means of a many cleft capsular liga- 
ment, this provision for the free versatile motion of the head 
appears necessary. When approached towards evening, he 
appeared strongly engaged in reconnoitring the object, blow- 
ing with a hissing noise (shay, shay, shay), common to other 
species, and stretching out his neck with a waving, lateral 
motion, in a threatening attitude, and, on a nearer approach, 
made a snapping with the bill, produced by striking together 
both mandibles, as they are equally movable. He was a very - 
expert mouse-catcher, swallowed his prey whole, and then, 
after some time, ejected from the bill the bones, skin, and 
