144 Brewster on the Breeding of the Acadian Owl. 
had taken in during the winter. There were four eggs on April 
4, and as the number was not increased the following day, Mr. 
Perham decided that the set was complete and accordingly took 
the parent birds with their clutch. He writes me that he made 
many unsuccessful attempts to catch the female on her eggs. 
She invariably flew out when he began to climb the tree, and he 
was at length obliged to shoot her. This behavior is strikingly 
different from that of the Mottled Owl under similar circum- 
stances, for the setting female of the latter species can always be 
taken off her nest by the hand, and even when pulled out of the 
hole rarely makes any attempt to escape. The male Saw-whet 
was shot while sitting on a branch near the nesting-hole. 
So much for the particulars of the capture ; now a word as to 
the specimens themselves. 
The eggs were sent to me unblown ; the birds, in the flesh. 
Had there been any reason to doubt the truth of Mr. Perham’s 
representations, this fact would have set the matter at rest. The 
belly of the female was bare and wrinkled, showing that incuba- 
tion had begun, but among her ovaries I found two eggs de- 
veloped to the size of large buck-shot, which upon being cut 
open yielded a small quantity of yellow yelk. From this I infer 
that two more-eggs would have been added to the set, perhaps, 
as with the Cuckoos and some other birds, after those first laid 
were well along towards hatching. The plumage of both male 
and female is clear and unworn but their coloring is much paler 
than in autumnal examples. 
The eggs were perfectly fresh. The yelk was yellow of about 
the usual tint. The four specimens measured respectively 1.2 1 x 
.95 ; 1. 2 1 x .98 ; 1.25 x .96 ; 1.25 x .97. They are nearly elliptical 
in shape, one end being only slightly more pointed than the other. 
The texture of the shell is rather rough and chalky in appearance 
ancl there is not the slightest perceptible polish. Two of them 
are much soiled with a brownish stain which easily washes off, 
and which was perhaps caused by contact with damp and decay- 
ing vegetable matter in the nest ; the other two are pure, dead 
white. The Smithsonian specimen is very much smaller than 
the present ones, measuring, according to Dr. Brewer (B. N. A., 
Vol. Ill, p. 47), only .95 x .88. 
The above detailed facts may be regarded as furnishing the 
first positive evidence we have of the breeding of this Owl in 
