The Screech Owl 
43 
all the birds, are the most efficient exterminators of this formidable pest, 
and should, on this account, receive protection. The farmers here are large 
growers of tobacco, and the damage done by the cutworm to the young 
plants, and the labor of resetting forced upon the growers, is almost incal- 
culable. I believe that if our native owls were as plenty as some other 
species of birds, the ravages of this destructive worm would be much less 
than at present.” 
Dr. A. K. Fisher, in his report on Screech Owls to the Department of 
Agriculture, declares that their economic relations are 
of the greatest importance, “particularly on account 
of the abundance of the species in many of the farm- 
ing districts; and whoever destroys them through ignorance or prejudice 
Economic 
Importance 
A FLORIDA SCREECH OWL ON ITS NEST 
should be severely condemned.” In his summary of the examination of 
the stomachs of 255 Screech Owls, he gives these notable facts: One 
contained poultry; 38 other birds — however, many of these were English 
Sparrows; 91 had been eating mice; 11, other mammals; 100, insects; 
32, an assorted diet of lizards, fish, spiders, crawfish, scorpions, etc. ; and 
43 stomachs were empty. 
This brief outline of the life-history and economic value of the 
Screech Owls is presented to the farmers, fruit-growers and school- 
children of the country, with the hope that it will create in them a 
desire to study and protect this very valuable and interesting bird, and 
even to encourage it to nest on their premises. 
