200 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



posts located on its shores." ^ Its most southern known breeding station is the 

 Magdalen Islands, where a nest containing four young and an addled egg was 

 found in June, 1878.^ 



98. Cryptoglaux acadica (Gmel.). 

 Saw-whet Owl. Saw-whkt. Acadian Owl. 



Not uncommon winter resident. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



October 30, 1874, one female taken, East Lexington, W. Brewster. 



November 10 — March i. 

 March 12, 1891, one seen, Cambridge, F. Bolles. 



Saw-whet Owls visit the Cambridge Region nearly if not quite every winter, 

 but in varying numbers. During some years only a few are reported ; in others 

 the birds are not uncommon, especially in November and December. They may 

 be looked for with the best chances of success in the wooded parts of Lexington, 

 Arlington, Belmont and Waltham. They have also occurred repeatedly in the 

 Fresh Pond Swamps, and not very infrequently in that rather densely populated 

 portion of Old Cambridge lying between Massachusetts Avenue and Mount 

 Auburn. The birds which frequent woodlands usually spend the day among the 

 dense evergreen foUage of pines or hemlocks, where they would be quite safe 

 from human observation were it not that their presence is often betrayed by 

 noisy and excited mobs of Chickadees, Kinglets and Nuthatches which gather 

 about them to scold and vituperate. Saw-whets are by no means always so retir- 

 ing, however, for sometimes they may be seen sitting in the full glare of the mid- 

 day sun in leafless trees or bushes along country roadsides, or even in those which 

 border city streets. About noon on February 7, 1898, a brilliantly clear day, I, 

 discovered one of these Owls in our garden, perched in a scarlet oak some ten 

 feet above the surface of the snow which, at that time, covered 'the ground 

 deeply. Several clusters of dry oak leaves still clung to the branch, and in their 

 midst sat the little Owl erect and motionless, quite aware, no doubt, that their 



IC. Bendire, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, XXVIII, 1892. Life Histories of North 

 American Birds, 348. 



'C. B. Cory, Naturalist in the Magdalen Islands, 1878, 54. 



