a vie?i/ of the dimly-lighted cha.mber within, that the young’ 
Owls, unquestionably there at the time, could not be sighted. 
Nor did we afterwards set eyes on more than one and he, 
poor bird, was found lying dead beneath a neighboring shed, 
albeit without sign of external injury and having flight 
quills fully developed, although his red body feathering 
was still plentifully intermixed with whitish natal down. 
This happened about June 15. As the dead bird was in 
fresh condition, he and the others presumably left the nest 
about that date. Save on the single occasion above men¬ 
tioned, the mother bird remained unseen and probably within 
the oak, by day, but often appeared when twilight was 
deepening at evening, gliding on noiseless wing through 
the apple orchard with excited Robins clamoring in her 
wake. 
Strange to say, no vocal sound of any kind, however 
trifling, was ever once heard from any of the Ov/ls during 
April, May or J\ine, despite the fact that the parent birds 
certainly hatched and reared their brood within sixty 
yards of the house in which I wa.s not only living all the 
while, but Slso strolling about constantly long after 
nightfall. That they should one and all have preserved 
such apparently unbroken silence during so long a period 
seemed truly remarkable; y?et I have had similar experiences 
in former years with Screech Owl breeding in the seme 
neighborhood (See notes for June 1901 and 1904, especially.) 
