166 THE HAWKS AND OWLS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Unfortunately we can not shut our eyes to the blacker pages of its 

 history, and it must be said that occasionally it is destructive to small 

 birds, especially during the breeding season, when it has a number of 

 hungry mouths to fill, and also in suburban districts where its favor- 

 ite food is hard to procure. Mr. Morris M. Green found the remains of 

 a house wren in a hole containing five young Screech Owls ; and Xuttall 

 says: "In the hollow stump of an apple tree, which contained a brood 

 of these young owls, were found several bluebirds, blackbirds, an:l 

 song sparrows, intended as a supply." (Land Birds, 1832, p. 121.) 



Sometimes it kills birds fully as large as itself. In one of its holes 

 the writer once found the remains of a quail ; and a woodcock has been 

 mentioned as found in a similar situation. Mr. E. E. Kimball, of 

 Fitchburg, Mass., informed the writer that a Screech Owl was killed at 

 Lunenburg, near that place, January 27, 1890, which had killed thirteen 

 doves for one farmer before it was itself executed. Its stomach was 

 filled with the feathers of the last victim. In a few instances it has 

 been known to kill and eat one of its own kind. When suffering from 

 the pangs of hunger it occasionally attacks barn-yard fowls. 



"About 3 o'clock on last Friday afternoon a common little screech 

 owl flew into a large barnyard in this neighborhood and alighted 

 on the back of a large hen, several times as large as itself, attempt- 

 ing to carry it off. The claws of the owl got entangled in the feath- 

 ers of the frightened hen, and the owner of the farm was enabled to 

 c itch it. * * * There was scarcely any flesh on its bones and no 

 signs of food in its stomach." (' Mght Hawk' : Forest and Stream, vol. 

 xx, March 8, 1883, p. 106.) And Mr. J. L. Davison, of Lockport, N. T., 

 mentions a Screech Owl attacking a Plymouth Eock rooster. (Forest 

 and Stream, vol. xxiv, March 19, 1885, p. 145.) 



Unfortunate as this bird-catching habit seems to be, it may be 

 ranked as an important factor in the bird's favor. Since the introduc- 

 tion of the noxious English sparrow, and its alarming increase in our 

 cities and villages, experience has taught the little Screech Owl that 

 this sparrow is a delicate and easily obtainable food. Many times at 

 dusk has this Owl been seen hovering about the ivy-mantled churches 

 or thick shrubbery of the parks in search of sparrows, and still more 

 positive evidence is furnished by the remains of English sparrows 

 which have been found in the stomachs of Owls shot in such locali- 

 ties. 



On this subject, Mr. E. S. T. Eussell, of Mount Perry, Ohio, writes to 

 us as follows: " I want to send you a fact about the English sparrow. 

 Last summer they were so thick around my house as to almost set me 

 wild, when a little * screech ' owl got to visiting us every night, and at 

 each visit he carried off a sparrow. My house is thickly covered with 

 vines, and the little owl would make a dash into the vines and capture 

 his sparrow every time. By fall they were well thinned out." 



