LAND BIRDS. 301 
county, nor was it found, by Otto Widmann, or by the writer, in Emmet 
county. Major Boies did not find it on Neebish Island or along the St. 
Mary’s River, not has it been reported by Osborn, Melville or Steere from 
Sault Ste. Marie. It does not occur in Kneeland’s list of the Birds of 
Keweenaw Point, nor did O. B. Warren find it during several years of 
observation at Palmer, Marquette county. Other observers in Marquette 
county have failed to report it, and the writer did not see or hear of it during 
a week’s collecting in Marquette, Alger and Chippewa counties. Finally, 
it was not found by any of the Biological Survey expeditions to Ontonagon 
county, Dickinson county, or Isle Royale. 
Of course this does not prove that it does not occur in any or all of these 
counties, and we know that the bird is naturally secretive and its protective 
coloration enables it to escape observation very easily. Nevertheless it 
is singular that we do not have other records from this large section of the 
state. In looking over the notes relating to the Lower Peninsula one is 
struck with the paucity of recent records, and it seems not unlikely that 
this is one of the species which has been decreasing in numbers of late. 
The Long-eared Owl is believed to nest wherever found, and the great 
majority of eggs found have been laid in old crow’s nests which have been 
more or less repaired for the purpose. Ordinarily the nest is placed at a 
height of ten to forty feet from the ground and the eggs would seem to be 
laid quite early in the season, often early in April, although Mr. E. B. Schrage 
of Pontiac, took a set of five eggs May 11, 1898. A set of four taken by 
Jerome Trombley, in Monroe county, May 14, 1889 were almost ready to 
hatch, and Dr. Gibbs reports a nest of young ready to fly May 22, 1878 at 
Kalamazoo. He also mentions six eggs of this species collected near 
Kalamazoo April 27, 1878 by A. Chambers. A nest found by Norman A. 
Wood, May 20, 1907, in a tamarack tree at Portage Lake, Washtenaw 
county, contained two young in the down. Leon J. Cole found a young 
one, more than half grown, at Chandler’s Marsh, Ingham county, May 31, 
1897. 
Mr. Amos Butler says that in Indiana the birds begin laying in March or 
April and that incubation begins with the first egg laid and lasts about three 
weeks (Birds of Indiana, p. 804). Major Bendire states that the Long- 
eared Owl rarely constructs a nest of its own; fully three-fourths of the 
nests he has found were old nests of the Crow. This species is generally 
supposed to rear but one brood, yet there are some facts to show that it 
sometimes rears two broods in a season, and like most other birds of prey 
when robbed of its eggs it will lay a second set in the same nest or at least 
in the same vicinity. The eggs are from three to six in number, pure white, 
unspotted, and average 1.66 by 1.28 inches. 
The food consists very largely of mice and other rodents, and although 
a few birds are eaten they are mostly seed-eaters and the harm so done is 
not serious. Of 92 stomachs reported upon by Dr. A. K. Fisher, 1 contained 
a game bird (quail); 15, other birds; 84, mice; 5, other mammals; and 1], 
insects. About 50 “pellets” of this species, collected at Munson Hill, 
Virginia by Dr. Fisher, yielded 176 skulls, of which all but 13 were mammals. 
Among these were 95 meadow mice, 19 pine mice, 15 house mice, 5 white- 
footed mice, 3 Cooper’s mice and 26 shrews. Of the other skulls, 11 were 
sparrows, 1 a Bluebird, and the other a warbler. — ; 
It is hardly necessary to add that this owl is decidedly beneficial to the 
agriculturist and should be rigidly protected. ; 3 
Major Bendire says that ‘except during the mating season it is rather 
