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48 Coolidge, Notes on the Screech Owl. [ja? 
NOTES ON THE SCREECH OWL. 
BY P. T. COOLIDGE. 
I. — A Young Screech Owl in Captivity. 
On June 5, 1902, I obtained a young Screech Owl ( Megascops 
asio), which had been found two or three days before in a road 
in Cambridge, Mass. A brief description of the bird at the begin- 
ning of its period of captivity will give some idea of its age. Its 
total length was about seven inches, of which about one inch was 
tail. The whole plumage was remarkably soft and fur-like; 
the facial disk was not very clearly defined, and the ears were 
merely certain areas in the scalp plumage the feathers of which 
could be erected at will. At the end of the first week of captivity, 
the owl could fly well. Before acquiring this accomplishment, 
when put in some position of precarious footing, like the slippery 
arm of a chair, he could move most easily bv crawling, sometimes 
clinging with his bill parrot-fashion. On the floor he would patter 
away as nimbly as a sandpiper. 
The first evening he was as tame as a hungry robin nestling. 
He would perch willingly on one’s finger, and would allow him- 
self to be stroked. But when he first saw me the next morning, 
his gentleness had all disappeared. Hissing, and snapping his 
bill, he swayed from one foot to the other, and held his wings off 
from his sides and ruffled his feathers so that he was fully six 
inches wide. His hiss, in particular, was about as terrifying as 
a gentle puff from an empty atomizer. This performance was 
repeated but once or twice during the eleven' weeks of his imprison- 
ment with me. Thinking the bird might be hungry, as he had 
been given nothing the night before, I tried as soon as possible 
to feed him with liver. He protested much, by a rather musical 
chattering, especially at my attempts to force morsels down his 
throat. 
The cage which the owl occupied during the summer was a box 
eighteen inches high, twenty-five inches long, and twenty-two 
inches wide, one side of which was covered with “cellar window 
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