Screech Owl. At either end of our old hatn, just 
roof 
under the projecting peak of its gable/ is a heart-shaped 
opening about 12 inches high by 8 wide, cut by my order 
years ago in the hope that Swallows might make use of it — 
which thus far they have failed to do. Passing that v/ay 
about 9 A. M. on May 15, I happened to glance at the 
aperture opening westward and at once perceived that it 
was occupied by a gray Screech Owl, sitting bolt upright, 
with ears erect, gazing dreamily through ha.lf-closed eyes 
out into brilliant sunshine. Thus engaged he was to be 
seen almost daily and at any hour, from the date just 
mentioned to June 12, in one or the other opening, but 
sometimes he retured to a rafter within the barn and 
occasionally could not be found anyv/here in the building 
or its neighborhood. His coice of a diurnal perch did 
not seem to be much governed by weather conditions for he 
showed himself in the opening quite as freely and for 
hours at a time when the sun was shining brightly as when 
the sky was clouded — although most given to doing so, 
perhaps, in the early morning and late afternoon. 
With the oncoming of evening twilight one might 
see him glide forth on silent wing to spread terror and 
dismay among our nesting Robins who followed him hither 
and thither through orchard and waodland, protesting his 
unwelcome presence with clamorous outcry. Nor did it 
