140 THE BIRDS 
more beneficial than harmful. Their food consists chiefly 
of mice (various species), squirrels, flying and gray, 
young rabbits and reptiles (frogs, lizards, small snakes), 
besides many insects. They nest either in natural cavities 
of trees or in some deserted crow’s nest; the eggs from 
three to four in number. Size, 1.95x1.65, are a dullish- 
white, unmarked. Fresh eggs March 20th to April 15th. 
Only one brood a season. They are quite abundant in the 
Alleghenian Mountains. 
