BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 107 



time have I missed any poultry or have they inflicted any injury on 

 anything of value. 



" The first I noticed of their presence was the discovery of quite a 

 pile of what appeared to be mice hair and bones, and on investigation 

 found the Norway fir was the roosting place of to me at that time a 

 vast number of owls. They had ejected the bolus of hair and bones 

 apparently of an army of tree-eating destructive mice, aiding the fruit 

 grower against one of the worst and most inveterate enemies. * * * 

 Their merits would fill sheets ; the demerits nil." 



Although it is true that the Long-eared Owls at times do construct 

 their own nests, I am inclined to believe that these birds, in this 

 region at least, prefer to occupy the deserted nests of other birds. I 

 have on several occasions found the Long-eared Owls breeding, and 

 always observed that they occupied the abandoned nests of Crows or 

 Hawks. Audubon says : u The Long- eared Owl is careless as to the 

 situation in which its young are to be reared, and generally accommo- 

 dates itselt with the abandoned nest of some other bird that proves of 

 sufficient size, whether it be high or low, in the fissure of a rock or on 

 the ground. Sometimes, however, it makes a nest itself; and this I 

 found to be the case in one instance near the Juniata river, in Penn- 

 sylvania, where it was composed of green twigs, with the leaflets 

 adhering, and lined with fresh grass and wool, but without any 

 feathers." Of all our Owls this species is, without doubt, the most 

 serviceable to the farmer and horticulturist, as it preys almost wholly 

 on field-mice and other destructive little rodents. Unhappily, during 

 the past four or five years there has been a rapid decrease in the 

 number of these birds in many localities in Pennsylvania ; this diminu- 

 tion, I judge, is largely due to the fact that the stuffed heads of these 

 harmless and beneficial Owls make an attractive ornament for lovely 

 woman's headwear. 



The eggs of this bird vary considerable in size ; a small example in 

 my possession measures about H by 1 inches. 



Xuttall states that "besides mice and rats, this species also preys 

 on field-mice, moles and beetles." 



Audubon says : "It preys chiefly on quadrupeds of the genus 

 A r i' i cola, and in summer destroys many beetles/' 



I have examined the stomachs of twenty-three Long-eared Owls and 

 found that twenty-two of them had fed only on mice ; the other exami- 

 nation made of a specimen taken in the late spring, showed some 

 beetles and portions of a small bird. 



