Horned and Hoot Owls 



Natural History, New York, in the winter of 1898, had the entire 

 plumage of a saw-whet owl spread over her turban! At this 

 same meeting another woman with self-righteous superiority 

 was overhead boasting that she never wore birds, only wings, in 

 her hats ! 



Saw-whet, saw-whet, the love notes of this owl, most fre- 

 quently heard in March and April, have a rasping quality like 

 the sound heard in a mill when the file is sharpening the teeth of 

 a saw ; not an agreeable noise, perhaps, yet because of the ven- 

 triloqual power of the bird's voice, and at the distance we think 

 we hear it, it has a certain fascination. 



Dense woodlands, particularly evergreen forests, for it dearly 

 loves a dark retreat, are where the owl passes its days; coming 

 out at night, when its flight, surprisingly like a woodcock's, has 

 deceived others than Dr. Fisher into making a worse than wasted 

 shot. Since it feeds almost exclusively on mice and insects, it is 

 folly to destroy so valuable a bird. Mr. Nelson says that a dozen 

 specimens have been taken in the most frequented streets in the 

 residence portion of Chicago within two years. 



The majority of nests recorded have been deserted wood- 

 pecker's holes, some in squirrel's excavations, most of them near 

 water, a few in stumps; but very rarely do the saw-whet owls 

 appropriate an open nest, and more rarely still build one of their 

 own. 



Screech Owl 



(Megascops asioj 



Called also: MOTTLED OWL; RED OWL; LITTLE HORNED 



OWL 



Length — 8. 50 to 9. 50 inches. 



Male and Female — Brownish red phase: Upper parts rusty red, 

 finely streaked with blackish brown and mottled with light 

 brown; under parts whitish or buff, the feathers centrally 

 streaked with black and with irregular rusty bars. Eyes 

 yellow; legs and feet covered with short feathers ; prominent 

 ear tufts. Gray phase: Upper parts ashen gray streaked 

 with black and finely mottled with yellow; under parts 

 . white, finely streaked and barred irregularly with black, more 



343 



