April, 1882.] 
AND OOLOGIST. 
109 
American Barn Owl, 
CONCLUDED. 
Slightly widening to the end where it is 
quite commodious, being often as much as 
two feet in diameter. For some time it 
was a perplexing question to me as to hoin 
and by what these holes were excavated. 
After careful investigation, I am convinced 
that the owls themselves make many of 
them. A slight crevice or squirrel hole is 
selected, and, with their powerful claws, 
they hollow it out to proper dimensions. 
Both birds are frequently found occupying 
the cavity during the day,—the male to one 
side of the nest. 
But the burrows are not always selected. 
Two nests were found in holes in oak trees, 
one was found in a barn by Master Bon¬ 
nie Field of Newhall, and in April, 1880, I 
found a pair occupying the deserted nest 
of a crow, which was placed about twenty 
feet from the ground in a cottonwood. I 
visited this nest at two different times be¬ 
fore taking the eggs (five in number), and 
flrove the female from the nest on each oc¬ 
casion.—^As an interesting fact in this con¬ 
nection, I may add that, this season, I took 
from this particular nest two sets of Long¬ 
eared Owl’s eggs and one of the Common 
Crow, {Corvus frugivorus.) 
The use of a nest of this kind by the 
Barn Owl is very rare, I think; careful 
search failed to discover a second instance 
of this kind. As stated above this owl be¬ 
gins nesting early in February, but in that 
vicinity a majority have not completed 
their sets before the first of March. On 
March 5, 1881, Mr. Fred Corey and I met 
with remarkable success with this owl’s 
eggs. We visited a deep baranca a few 
miles east of Santa Paula, where we knew 
them to be abundant. We arrived upon 
the groimd early in the morning, with 
spade and rope ready for a hard day’s 
work,—and the number of sets we ob¬ 
tained was limited only by the time re¬ 
quired in digging for tliem. Our only way 
of getting at the nests was by tying one 
end of our long rojae to a stake driven se¬ 
curely in the groimd at some distance from 
the edge of the baranca, tying the other 
end around our waist and letting ourself 
down to the hole. Then, after more or less 
pretty hard digging we were able to reach 
the eggs. We dug down to eleven nests 
altogether, from six of which we got forty- 
foicr eggs, ranging from six to ten eggs to 
the nest. One of the other nests contained 
nothing ; another, five eggs, one of which 
was pipped ; another wath one young and 
six eggs ; still another wath four eggs and 
five young; and yet another with five eggs 
and five young. The young varied greatly 
in size, some were scarcely dry, others were 
a week or more old. From these and sub¬ 
sequent observations, I am led to think 
that the number of eggs varies from five to 
ten, averaging about seven, which is the 
largest number I have seen mentioned by 
any other writer. Cones says “ from three 
to sixBaird, Brewer, and Ridgway, 
“ from three to fourMaynard, “ from 
three to fourGentry, “ from three to 
four, very rarely moreand that vet^an 
oologist, Capt. Bendire, in a letter to Mr. 
J. M. Wade, which I was kindly permitted 
to read, says : “ Seven had been the great¬ 
est number I had heard this species credited 
with.” All of these figures seem far too 
low, yet it may be that the number of eggs 
depends upon the locality, as does the 
place of the nest. 
A word upon what different authorities 
say regarding its nest, may not be out of 
place. As to whether it constructs any nest 
seems to depend entirely where it nests; 
if in holes in cliffs, trees, or walls, no lining 
is used ; if in barns or houses, it constructs 
a rude nest of sticks or other rubbish easily 
brought together. Summing up what the 
various observers had written on this point, 
it equals the above, which is in harmony 
with my own observations. 
Prof. Gentry, in Life-Histories of Birds 
of Eastern Pennsylvania, says : “As soon 
