148 
THE LITTLE SCKEECH OWL. 
gentle when seized, as it will suffer a person to touch its feathers and caress 
it, without attempting to bite or strike with its talons, unless at rare intervals. 
I carried pne of the young birds represented in the Plate, in my coat pocket, 
from Philadelphia to New York, travelling alternately by water and by 
land. It remained generally quiet, fed from the hand, and never attempted 
to escape. 
The notes of this Owl are uttered in a tremulpus, doleful manner, and 
somewhat resemble the chattering of the teeth of a person under the influence 
of extreme cold, although much louder. They are heard at a distance of 
several hundred yards, and by some people are thought to be of ominous 
import. 
The little fellow is generally found about farm-houses, orchards, and 
gardens. It alights on the roof, the fence or the garden gate, and utters its 
mournful ditty at intervals for hours at a time, as if it were in a state of great 
suffering, although this is far from being the case, the song of all birds being 
an indication of content and happiness. In a state of confinement, it con- 
tinues to utter its notes with as much satisfaction as if at liberty. They are 
chiefly heard during the latter part of winter, that being the season of love, 
when the male bird is particularly attentive to the fair one which excites his 
tender emotions, and around which he flies and struts much in the manner 
of the Common Pigeon, adding numerous nods and bows, the sight of which 
is very amusing. 
The nest is placed in the bottom of the hollow trunk of a tree, often not, 
at a greater height than six or seven feet from the ground, at other times as 
high as from. thirty to forty feet. It is composed of a few grasses and feathers. 
The eggs are four or five, of a nearly globular form, and pure white colour. 
If not disturbed, this species lays only one set of eggs in the season. The 
young remain in the nest until they are able to fly. At first they are covered 
with a downy substance of a dull yellowish- white. By the middle of August 
they are fully feathered, and are then generally of the colour exhibited in 
the Plate, although considerable difference exists between individuals, as I 
have seen some of a deep chocolate colour, and others nearly black. The 
feathers change their colours as the pairing season advances, and in the first 
spring the bird is in its perfect dress. 
The Mottled Owl rests or spends the day either in a hole of some decayed 
tree, or in the thickest part of the evergreens which are found so abundantly 
in the country, to which it usually resorts during the breeding season as well 
as in the depth of winter. 
The branch on which you see three individuals of this species, an adult 
bird and two young ones, is that of the Jersey Pine ( Pinus inops ), a tree of 
moderate height and diameter, and of a scrubby appearance. The stem is 
