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back to the same spot to try to see it again, we failed but just over our 
heads perched under a pine branch, almost like an umbrella, we saw the 
loveliest saw-whet fast asleep. We were within two feet and could have 
caught it without any trouble. Our talking aroused the owl but it just 
looked at us without flying and we went on our way happily satisfied that 
we had had the opportunity of seeing it. The third time was on January 22, 
1939, at Morton Arboretum on a C.O.S. trip. Six of us stood right in 
front of a saw-whet. It was too cute for words, turning its head from one 
to the other of us, until in our enthusiasm we ventured too close and it 
flew a short distance away. The flight seemed very much like that of the 
woodcock. 
The saw-whet has a great variety of calls. In Roberts’ Birds of 
Minnesota we read “The calls are soft, musical, whistling, tinkling or 
cooing sounds, others harsh, rasping and metallic, sounding to some ears 
like the filing of a saw, whence the common name.” The measurement of 
the saw-whet is eight inches and three inches of that is tail. It is remark- 
able that a bird so small can kill animals and birds larger and stronger 
than itself, for it isn’t much larger than a plump common sparrow. 
Sereech owls, though more common than the saw-whet, are neverthe- 
less as much prized by us when we see them. We have found them in 
Jackson Park, Oakwoods and Oakhill Cemeteries and the Dunes. A pair 
nested in Jackson Park for two or more years and many bird lovers made 
the trip to the Park to see them when the word went out that they were 
there. It was there that I heard the screech owl give his call and purring 
notes, after seven in the evening. At that time a certain man used to go 
over to the Park to feed the pigeons, sparrows and grackles, of which there 
was an abundance. Because this man saw one of the owls catch a pigeon, 
he destroyed the young and adult owls as well as the nest. When he told 
me what he had done I reminded him that the stockyards were making a 
business of killing animals so he could have meat three times a day if he 
wished. He said “Well I never thought of it in that hight before. I guess 
you are right at that.” Nature has a way of balancing its over-production 
and when man tries to interfere only harm can come of it. 
The most remarkable peculiarity of the screech owl is its tendency to 
develop two very distinct phases of plumage, a red and a gray. This 
tendency seems to have nothing to do with sex, age or season and has never 
been satisfactorily explained, so far as I know. On New Years’ day of last 
year Mr. Bartel and I saw one in the red phase at the Arboretum, sleeping 
in a pine tree right out on an open branch in full sunlight. Was the owl 
trying to keep warm? It was a perfect subject for a snapshot and who 
knows but that it might have taken a prize, but camera and I were in 
different places. . 
Short-eared owls are well distributed, being found in every continent 
except Australia. They prefer open plains, marshes and sand dunes rather 
than thick forests and are seen hunting by day. This owl nests mostly on 
the ground, making its nest of marsh grass ten to eighteen inches across. 
The young wander from the nest in about two weeks, each day going farther 
afield. A. A. Saunders writing in 1913 says he was always able to find the 
