HABITS. This species appears to be one of the most numerous of the Owls of North America, and to be pretty generally distributed. Its strictly nocturnal habits have caused it to be temporarily overlooked in localities where it is now known to be present and not rare. Dr. William Gambel and Dr. Heermann both omit it from their lists of the birds of California, though Dr. J. G. Cooper has since found it quite common. It was once supposed not to breed farther south than New Jersey, but it is now known to be resident in South Carolina and in Arizona, and is probably distributed through all the intervening country. Donald Gunn writes that to his knowledge this solitary bird hunts in the night, both summer and winter, in the Red River region. It there takes possession of the deserted nests of crows, and lays four white eggs. He found it as far as the shores of Hudson’s Bay. Richardson states it to be plentiful in the woods skirting the plains of the Saskatchewan, frequenting the coast of the bay in the summer, and retiring into the interior in the winter. He met with it as high as the 16th parallel of latitude, and believed it to occur as far as the forests extend. Dr. Cooper met with this species on the banks of the Columbia, east of the Dalles. The region was desolate and barren, and several species of Owls appeared to have been drawn there by the abundance of hares and mice. Dr. Suckley also met with it on a branch of Milk River, in Nebraska. It has likewise been taken in different parts of California, in New Mexico, among the Rocky Mountains, in the valley of the Rio Grande, at Fort Benton, and at Cape Florida, in the last-named place by Mr. Würdemann. Dr. Cooper found this Owl quite common near San Diego, and in March observed them sitting in pairs in the evergreen oaks, apparently not much troubled by the light. On the 27th of March he found a nest, probably that of a Crow, built in a low evergreen oak, in which a female Owl was sitting on five eggs, then partly hatched. The bird was quite bold, flew round him, snapping her bill at him, and tried to draw him away from the nest; the female imitating the cries of wounded birds with remarkable accuracy, showing a power of voice not supposed to exist in Owls, but more in the manner of a Parrot. He took one of the eggs, and on the 23d of April, on revisiting the nest, he found that the others had hatched. The egg measured 1.60 by 1.36 inches. Dr. Cooper also states that he has found this Owl wandering into the barren treeless deserts east of the Sierra Nevada, where it was frequently to be met with in the autumn, hiding in the thickets along the streams. It also resorts to caves, where any are to be found. Dr. Kennerly met with this bird in the cañons west of the Aztec Mountains, where they find good places for their nests, which they build, in common with Crows and Hawks, among the precipitous cliffs,—places unapproachable by the wolf and lynx.