May, 1881.] 
AND OOLOGIST 
21 
Collectors. — Mr. Robert Ridgway of 
the Smithsonian and Mr. Fred. T. Jencks 
of Providence, R. I., left Washington for 
Wheatland, Indiana,(the home of the Ridg- 
way’s) April 13th, on a collecting trip which 
is expected to continue for two months. 
Mr. Jencks has already sent us notes of the 
trip and promises to continue them for the 
benefit of our readers. They will appear 
in our next number. 
Northwestern Screech Owl. 
The habits of Scops aaio Kennicotti,tow.nd 
on the northwest coast where it replaces 
S. asio maccaXli seem to be essentially 
the same as those of its eastern and south¬ 
ern relatives, the Scops asio and asio mac- 
calli. It is scarcely ever seen in the daytime, 
and if not secluded in the hollow of a tree, 
it is only found in the densest and darkest 
of the thickets generally about creek bot¬ 
toms. It does not appear to come about 
houses. This form averages considerably 
larger than asio and maccalli, and seems to 
be moderately common in this vicinity, 
wliile a hundred miles to the eastward about 
Fort Lapwai, Idaho, it appears not to be 
found. At any rate, I failed to notice it 
there during three years collecting. I ob¬ 
tained four specimens here during the past 
winter, two of each sex. The measurement 
of a female shot November 7th, 1880, is as 
follows, wing 7.50, tail 4.25, tarsus 1.50, 
culmen 0.75, iris yellow, bill and claws pale 
horn color. The second female was larger 
still, the wing being 7.85. The males are 
a trifle smaller. A set of eggs taken to-day 
April 7 th, four in number, measure as fol¬ 
lows, 1.47x1.28, 1.43x1.29, 1.45x1.30 and 
1.46x1.30. These were found in a hole in 
a good sized Cottonwood tree about twen¬ 
ty-five feet from the ground. The cavity 
was about sixteen inches deep. There was 
no nest, the eggs lying on decayed bits of 
wood and a few dead leaves ; no feathers. 
The parent, presumably the female, was on 
the nest and would not leave the hole, 
where I allowed her to remain while re¬ 
moving the eggs. The first time I exam¬ 
ined the cavity it contained a single egg 
and a dead mouse. This was March 29th. 
The eggs of course are white and globular 
like most Owl’s eggs. A pair of 
Sparrow Hawks, Tinnunculns sparver- 
ious, have taken possession of a hole only 
about two feet above the one occupied by 
the owls, and seem to live in harmony with 
the latter. The call notes of Kennicotti’s 
owl appears to me to be the same as that 
of the eastern Screech Owl, and I heard it 
nightly during the month of March. Since 
the first egg has been deposited the birds 
have remained silent. —Chas. Bendire, Fort 
Walla Walla, Washington Territory. 
Bird Notes from Virginia. 
“That Woodcock.” The reading of Mr. 
Merrill’s article on “that woodcock” re¬ 
minded me of a similar case which hap¬ 
pened some years ago. While sitting in 
the house my attention was attracted by 
loud cries of distress from a Woodpecker. 
I seized my gun and stepped into the yard 
just in time to witness the last struggle of 
the Woodpecker in the talons of a Cooper 
Hawk, wliich was soon my prize. When I 
picked the Hawk up I was surprised at his 
emaciated condition, but I soon discovered 
ample cause in a large splinter as thick as 
my finger and six inches long, through the 
fleshy part of the wing near the shoulder. 
The splinter was firmly imbedded and the 
wound healed over. 
The Summer Red Bird, {Pyranga Aesti- 
va) is much more rare here. In all my ex¬ 
perience I have found but one nest, and 
this also was on the depressed bough of a 
hickory. A beautiful nest carefully and 
artistically woven of fine wiry grass, and 
strips of bark, and well lined with softer 
material. The eggs (3) much resembled 
those of the Pyranga rubra, but of a high¬ 
er and cleaner tint. It contained one or 
two eggs of the Cow Bird. In short in 
this section there seems to be few small 
birds, whose nests are not occasionally 
utilized by the cow-bird for its parasitic 
brood. 
