44 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 
More welcome tenants than the House Sparrows 
are a pair of Screech Owls, who for years have 
reared their broods in a dovecotelike gable, where 
they are beyond the reach of nest robbers of all 
kinds. During the winter they apparently are ab- 
sent, uor indeed are they seen until June, when, each 
evening at sundown, one of the pair, probably the 
23. Sereech Owl. x 3. 
male, takes his post at the entrance to its home and 
gives utterance to the crooning refrain which some- 
times follows the so-called tremulous “ screech.” 
But the latter I never hear at this season. In spite 
of the poor light prevailing at this hour, the bird’s 
stillness has tempted repeated trials to secure its 
picture, and the most successful, made with a four- 
