LAND BIRDS. 309 
Mr. Purdy writes from Plymouth, Washtenaw county: ‘Quite abundant 
here a few years ago, but now quite rare and will soon become extinct 
unless there is some law to protect them. During my experience, of the 
past 61 years, I have never known them to kill poultry, but a fool with a 
gun will not allow one to exist if he can prevent it.” It is recorded by 
White at Mackinac Island, and by Major Boies at Neebish Island, St. 
Mary’s River. In Marquette county O. B. Warren calls it uncommon, 
but it is resident there and breeds. Both Judge Steere and W. P. Melville 
state that at Sault Ste. Marie it is the most abundant species of owl. At 
Petersburg, Monroe county, Jerome Trombley says it is now nearly extinct. 
This owl sees well in the day time and occasionally hunts by day in 
cloudy weather. According to Bendire mating begins in February, early 
or late according to the latitude, and in the middle states the eggs are 
laid from the second week in March to the first week in April. Mr. Covert 
states that at Ann Arbor it nests from the last week in March to the middle 
of April, and Dr. Gibbs says that C. W. Gunn found Barred Owls nesting 
in the hollow limb of a sycamore tree in Kent county, April 12, 1879. 
In Kalamazoo county the late Richard Westnedge found a nest April 
28, 1891, containing three young birds, and another, evidently an old 
hawk’s nest, in a basswood, 60 feet up, had a single egg well advanced in 
incubation, April 9, 1893. Ix. R. Wilhelm found one egg and a two-day-old 
chick in a cavity of a dead birch in the same county, April 21, 1887, the nest 
made of dead leaves and feathers and nearly level with the opening. A 
second nest found in the same vicinity, April 15, 1891, by the same collector, 
had three eggs containing advanced embryos. It usually nests in hollow 
trees, very rarely in an old nest of hawk or Crow. The eggs are usually 
three, sometimes but two, very rarely four. But one brood is reared in 
a season, and the period of incubation is variously given as three to four 
weeks. The eggs are white, unspotted, and average 1.94 by 1.65 inches. 
Probably this is the noisest of ourowls. It has a variety of harsh screams, 
some of which are almost blood-curdling. Bendire speaks of ‘the un- 
earthly, wierd call-notes peculiar to this species, which surpass in startling 
effect those of all other owls with which I am familiar.”” He states further 
that the common notes are “hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo-too-too.”’ It often calls 
in the day time in dark weather, and is most noisy when mating, several 
birds often uniting to form an indescribable chorus. 
Dr. A. K. Fisher sums up the food habits of this owl in the following 
words: ‘While the general statements of certain authors, especially the 
earlier ones, charge the bird with the destruction of poultry, game and 
small birds, such destructive habits are comparatively uncommon. That 
it does occasionally make inroads upon the poultry yard, and does more or 
less damage among game birds, is true; but such acts are exceptional, and 
the examination of a large number of stomachs shows that the greater 
part of its food consists of mammals. And it is to be noted that among 
the list are some of the most destructive rodents the farmer has to contend 
with. If a fair balance is struck therefore, it must be considered that 
this owl is on the whole beneficial and hence should occupy a place on the 
list of birds to be protected” (Hawks and Owls of the U. S., 1892, 151-152). 
Of 89 stomachs reported upon by Dr. Fisher, 5 contained poultry or game; 
13, other birds; 46, mice; 18, mammals; 4, frogs; 1, a lizard; 2, fish; 14, 
insects; 2, spiders; and 9, crayfish. 
