Lak. 
AMERICAN NATURALIST 
VoL. XXXIII. July, 1899. No. 391. 
OBSERVATIONS ON OWLS, WITH PARTICULAR 
REGARD TO. THEIR FEEDING HABITS. 
THOMAS H. MONTGOMERY, Jr. 
Tue following notes, from observations on the short-eared 
owl, Asto acciptrinus Pall., and the long-eared owl, A. wilsoni- 
anus Less., present some results from the examination of a 
considerable number of food pellets of these birds. These data 
may prove of interest from three points of view: (1) the kind 
of food eaten by these owls; (2) the relation of the amount of 
food found in the pellets beneath a roosting place to the total 
amount of food consumed ; and (3) the comparative numerical 
abundance of small mammals in the vicinity, as deduced from 
their remains in the pellets. 
At Christmas, 1898, four long-eared owls were found roost- 
ing in an arbor vitæ tree on my father’s place, “ Ardrossan,” 
near West Chester, Penn. Before coming to this tree they had 
roosted in a small outleaved beech, until driven away by gun- 
ners. These owls were under my daily observation from Dec. 
25, 1898, to Feb. 22, 1899. The tree on which they roosted is 
a large one, nearly forty feet in height, without especially dense 
foliage, situated between a house and a stable, about a dozen 
feet from either. Close to it passed many times a day people 
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