THE SAW- WHET OWL. 381 



Recognition Marks. — Smallest of Eastern Owls, — Chewink size, but appear- 

 ing larger ; no ear-tufts ; pattern of coloring much more simple than in Megascops 

 asio. Lighter in color than N. t. richardsoni (which may possibly occur in Ohio), 

 streaked instead of spotted on crown, and with unbarred feet and legs. 



Nest, in hollow trees, deserted Woodpecker holes, etc.. Eggs, 4-7, white, 

 subspherical. Av. size, 1.20 x i.oo (30.5 x 25.4). 



General Range. — North America at large, breeding from the Middle States 

 northward, and in mountainous regions of the West southward into Mexico. 



Range in Ohio. — Resident. Probably not uncommon, but little observed. 



BECAUSE of its very retiring and strictly nocturnal habits, this little 

 Owl has long been considered rare, and the sets of eggs taken within the 

 United States would probably number not above a score. Carroll County,, 

 Indiana, is given by Bendire as the southernmost limit of its breeding, but 

 Davie records the taking of a brood of young birds at Worthington, by Mr. 

 J. E. Gould, May 28, 1889. This past season the writer encountered two 

 family groups, one of four birds, June 19th, on the banks of the Licking 

 Reservoir, and the other oi six, July 7-1 ith, in the hollow near the Siebert 

 Spring, on the State University grounds. 



The note heard in both cases bore only the most distant possible resem- 

 blance to the "filing of a cross-cut saw," which is the classical comparison. 

 It was rather a rasping, querulous sa-a-a-a-ay, repeated by old and young 

 with precisely the same accent, and inaudible at any distance above a hundred 

 feet. Uncertain in the first instance, since the hour was late dusk, whether 

 the dark silhouettes before me had horns or not, I tried the Screech Owl cry 

 and was greeted with a perfect chorus of says from the youngsters, while the 

 parents whined in a mystified way and flew back and forth near my head 

 snapping their mandibles together fiercely. In the second instance, in the 

 large willows and poplars near the University spring, I succeeded in rousing 

 one old bird and five owlets at an unusually early hour, viz., about twenty 

 minutes after sunset. The smaller song birds were still astir and scolded 

 vigorously at the appearance of these grim night watchmen, but the Owls 

 gave no heed to their clamor, and were only intent upon discovering the wdiere- 

 abotits of their cousin Screech Owl, who had summoned them. The parent 

 bird was the first to discover the deception and she bent forward peering 

 earnestly at me, and uttered a low mellow cook of comprehension, twice, after 

 which the party withdrew. There could be little doubt that the young had 

 been raised in one of the hollow trees in the immediate neighborhood. 



Nesting and roosting are preferably in deserted Woodpecker holes, but 

 in default of these dense foliage is said to furnish cover for the birds during 

 the day. Dr. William L. Ralph of Utica, N. Y., finds that under such cir- 

 cumstances they are not at all suspicious, and has even stroked them with his 

 hand as they were roosting sleepily in bush or tree. 



