The Screech Owls 



Recognition Marks. — As in preceding — lighter and grayer. 



Range of 0. a. gilmani. — Southwestern California, southern Arizona, and 

 southwestern New Mexico (presumably also northern Sonora). 



Occurrence in California. — Resident in the valley of the lower Colorado 

 River and probably also in the Imperial Valley. 



Authorities. — H. Brown (Megascops asio cineraceus), Condor, vol. vi., 1904, 

 p. 46 (Colo. Valley, on Calif, side) ; Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. xii., 1914, 

 p. 128 (Colo. Valley) ; Gilman, Condor, vol. xi., 1909, p. 147 (Ariz.; desc. nests; habits, 

 etc.) ; Swarth, Condor, vol. xviii., 1916, p. 163 (crit., desc, meas.). 



TO ONE whose early studies have been 

 conducted in the forests and deciduous groves of 

 the East it is a disappointment to learn that the 

 birds of California will not respond to the Screech 

 Owl cry. Why, go out in any grove from Iowa 

 to Massachusetts, at any time of year, at any 

 hour of daylight, save the siesta interval from 

 10 a. m. to 2 p. m., secrete yourself in a thicket 

 and simulate the mournful, rolling call of the 

 little Screech Owl, and you will at once be con- 

 scious of an apprehensive hush in the neighboring 

 trees and bushes. Then follows a murmur of 

 inquiry; Chickadees, Titmice, Nuthatches, Warb- 

 lers, Vireos, and Jays set out to discover the 

 whereabouts of this arch-enemy who has been 

 indiscreet enough to proclaim his presence during 

 the hours of his helplessness. If a veritable Owl 

 is found, as not infrequently happens, every 

 bird's bill is against him, and there is none so 

 poor to do him reverence — by daylight. This 

 is not alone because he appears stupid and 

 sleepy, or because he regards his tormentors with 

 the fixed gravity of a round-eyed gaze, varied 

 only by "that forlorn, almost despairing wink" 

 peculiar to it, but because they have an ancient 

 and well-grounded grudge against this bird of 

 silent wing and cruel claw. All but the Blue Jay {Cyanocitta cristata) — 

 he is a villain himself, and he leads the persecution of Owls from a sheer 

 love of mischief. Whenever a Blue Jay's voice is lifted high, and there 

 is an undercurrent of bird-babble beneath it, it is time for the bird-man 

 to slip rapidly forward from tree to tree and investigate. 



But there is none of that here, nor indeed anywhere in the West, so far 

 as I have been able to discover. Why, we do not exactly know ; but it may 



ALL ABOARD! 



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