344 LIFE HISTOEIBS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The Spotted Owl is mainly nocturnal in its habits, and is rarely seen in the 

 daytime. It may be much more common in suitable localities than is generally 

 supposed, and as it seems to be almost entirely confined to the thinly settled 

 mountain regions of the West, its present rarity is easily accounted for. 



Very little is as yet known of its general habits. I accidentally stumbled 

 on this bird and its nest while en route from Picacho Peak to my camp on 

 Rillitto Creek, near Whipple's Station, on April 17, 1872. My attention was 

 first drawn to the nest by one of my men, who noticed a bird sitting on it. 

 Rapping on the trunk of the tree it flew into the branches of another close by, 

 from which I shot it. On picking it up I supposed it to be a common 

 Barred Owl, and only on my return to camp did I realize the prize I had 

 secured; it was too much mutilated, however, to make a good skin. The nest 

 appeared to me to be a new one, built by the birds themselves; it was about 30 

 feet from the ground and placed in a fork close to the trunk of a large and 

 bushy cottonwood tree standing in the midst of a dense grove of younger trees 

 of the same species. It was composed of sticks, twigs, and the dry inner bark 

 of the cottonwood, lined with some dry grass and a few feathers. The inner 

 cavity was about 2 inches deep, and the nest itself about the size of that of 

 the larger Hawks. It was readily seen from below, but not easily observed 

 a little distance away, the foliage of the tree hiding it pretty effectually. Some 

 few weeks later I saw a pair of these birds in the same vicinity and secured 

 another. 



I several times heard the calls of what I supposed to be this species, 

 in March of the following year, among the tall timber near my camp, and I 

 believe the Spotted Owl is not uncommon in that part of Arizona. As near as 

 I remember, their call notes are very similar to those of the Barred Owl, con- 

 sisting of a series of continuous and far reaching hootings. 



I believe it nests in cavities of trees as well as in open nests, and that like 

 the Barred Owl, it lays from two to four eggs to a set. Nidification seems to 

 take place in April, somewhat later than that of the latter species. 



Mr. O. C. Poling writes me: "I discovered a nest and four newly hatched 

 young of the Spotted Owl in the foothills among the oaks at the northern end 

 of the Huachuca Mountains in Arizona. This was on May 23, 1890. Both 

 parents were close to the nest and took little notice of me as I approached 

 close to them. The nest was simply a large cavity in an oak about 10 feet 

 from the ground." 



The single egg before me, taken from the nest found on April 17, 1872, 

 already mentioned, was fresh; it is oval in shape and pure white in color. The 

 shell is slightly granulated and shows but little gloss. It measures 52 by 45.5 

 millimetres, and, as it is very similar to the egg of the Barred Owl, is not 

 figured. 



