The Singing of Birds. E.P.Bickneli, 
Scops asio. Screech Owl. 
The Screech Owl shows a very perplexing irregularity through 
the year in the use of its strange quavering cry. This much is 
plain from my records, which, however, are not sufficiently full 
to give a clear reading of the larger facts. But that the bird is 
noisy or the reverse with some reference to the time of the year 
there can be no doubt. The late summer, far more than the 
spring, seems to be the season when its cry is most frequent and 
most regular from year to year. Usually, after a considerable 
time of silence, it begins to quaver in July or in August, thence 
continuing off and on until winter. But there is no great regu- 
larity about this ; simply my notes through a series of years 
cover all this period, and the bird is to be heard in one or more 
of the autumn months every year. 
I am not without scattering records of having heard it in 
winter ; but it is virtually a silent bird from December or earlier 
until March or later. 
With some uniformity it is to be heard for a short time in late 
March or early April ; but I have not a record for late April, May, 
and June. Auk, 2 , July, 1886. p. ££, O - 26 / . 
