56 RED AND MOTTLED OWLS, ETC. 
old. and young, it ought to be deemed sufficient. 
I believe that the mottled bird may be rather smaller 
than the red one, as noticed by Cabot, but of this I 
am not certain. A careful comparison would, pro- 
bably, discover other distinguishing characters. 
I will conclude with a few facts in relation to the 
habits of owls. 
My pet red owl drank frequently, and was accus- 
tomed to wash every day in a basin of cold water, 
during the heat of summer. 
It has been stated that one of the young owls was 
much less than the other when taken from the nest. 
It appeared to be very young, would not feed, and 
soon died. At the time, I was at a loss to account 
for the difference. On a subsequent occasion, I 
found a long-eared owl on her nest, and shot her. 
The nest contained four young birds and one egg. 
The birds were all of different sizes, and evidently 
of ages corresponding. The larger one was at least 
twice the size of the smaller. The chick in the egg 
was alive, and nearly ready to be excluded from the 
shell. In both these cases, therefore, it appears 
that the eggs must have been hatched at different 
times, — perhaps in the order of succession in which 
they were laid. 
I think this curious circumstance may be ex- 
plained by supposing that the parent continues to 
sit on the nest, at least during the day, from the 
time she commences laying her eggs. 
It would be curious to know whether this mode 
of incubation may not be common to all the owls, or 
at least to those of a nocturnal character. 
