HORNED OWLS, ETC.: MEXICAN SCREECH OWL 317 
feet at Redrock, September 24, 1908 (Goldman). In the late fall it seems to be rather 
common at the lower altitudes.—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. In hollow trees, natural cavities, in scrub oak, etc., or giant cactus in 
abandoned holes of Gila Woodpeckers and Gilded Flickers, generally not far from 
the ground. Eggs: Usually 3 or 4. 
Food.— Kangaroo rats, gophers, mice, rats, small birds, frogs, lizards, snakes, 
crawfish, scorpions, grasshoppers, locusts, and beetles. It is one of the most in¬ 
sectivorous of our owls. 
General Habits. —The small Mexican Screech Owl has the gray 
bark colors which it renders especially effective in times of danger 
by assuming protective attitudes. When one was surprised by Major 
Bendire, it was sitting on a limb near the trunk in a relaxed, drowsy 
attitude, but as soon as it caught sight of him, “it straightened up, sat 
very erect, with all its feathers pressed close to its body, making it 
appear nearly as long again, and it might then have been easily mis¬ 
taken for a slender stump of the limb on which it was resting” (1892, 
p. 368). In addition to the old explanation of protective mimicry, 
Abbott Thayer brings forward the theory that by this contraction of 
its plumage, the background pictures” of the owl are made clearest 
and sharpest, so helping to obliterate it. 
1 he low quavering call of the Mexican Screech Owl, always heard 
with lively interest, may be caught in the night or at sundown when it 
is starting out on its day's work. Speaking of his Wheeler Survey 
experiences, Mr. Henshaw says, “ Whenever our camp chanced to be 
made near one of the groves of oaks . . . these Owls were sure to 
to be heard soon after dusk, and not infrequently, several would take 
up their stations in a tree within a few feet of the camp fire, and remain 
foi an hour or more, apparently to satisfy their curiosity, uttering 
from time to time their low, responsive cries.” They are very sociable 
in their disposition, he adds, and often “as soon as it is fairly dusk, the 
first call of a solitary bird may be heard issuing from some thicket 
where it has remained in concealment during the day. After one or 
two repetitions, this will be answered by another, perhaps half a mile 
away, and soon by a third and a fourth, apparently all coming together; 
and I have heard at least eight of these Owls, congregated within a 
short distance in the tree tops. When the band was complete they 
would move off, still apparently keeping together, till their notes were 
lost in the distance” (1875, p. 405). 
Additional Literature.—Allen, A. A., Auk, XLI, 1-16, 1924 (life history and 
economic status).— Butcher, William, Educational Leaflet 11, Nat. Assoc. Audu¬ 
bon Soc.— Metz, Charles W., Condor, X, 143-145, 1908.— Rockwell, R. B., 
Condor, IX, 140-145, 1907.— Seton, E. T., Bird-Lore, XXIII, 124-137, 1921 
(bathing).— Sherman, A. R., Auk, XXVIII, 155-168, 1911. 
