Nest of Scops Asio
MASS. (Middlesex Co.) [Middlesex County, Massachusetts]
April 26 - 1875
Apr. 26 [April 26, 1875] Clear and warm. Off after breakfast
striking up through the swamps.
Spent most of the forenoon hunting
for the mottled owls nest around
the Pine swamp where I saw so
many signs of the birds on the 17th inst [April 17, 1975]
and finally found it in a natural 
hole in an apple tree some distance
from the swamp and quite near
a house. The [female] (a gray bird) was
sitting on four eggs in which the
embryos were just assuming their
shape as future birds. There was
not the slightest indication of a 
nest, the eggs merely lying on a 
bed of rotten chips, and feathers
plucked from the victims of the
owls. To days experience has quite
changed my mind with regard to
the bird destroying proclivities of this
species of owl. In many empty holes
which were doubtless the resorts of the
[male] were feathers of different species
of birds & in the nesting cavity I
found remains of some four or
five species, including Plec. nivalis [Plectrophenax nivalis],
Sialia sialis & last & most numerous
Turdus migratorius. The nest was in
a very filthy condition from the excrement
of the bird which was freely voided about
the cavity.The sitting bird when
taken off her eggs seemed perfectly
stupid - made no resistance with
either bill or claws and law [lay] in the
open palm of my hand without attempting