Page:Bird-lore Vol 03.djvu/72

 Saw -whet Homes 57 On the wings of a howling wind, across the mile-wide flood, at Pem- hina, on April 13, 1 heard the fluting of another Saw-whet. I found the cavity, an open hollow, inhabited by this bird, later; but nothing more. During 1899, no signs of the Saw-whet were vouchsafed me. In 1900, some ten miles east of Hallock, while looking critically for the nest of a located pair of Hooded Mergansers, 1 found a kiln -dried elm stub, on a sort of island, well secluded, on the South Fork. This large stub con- tained a Flicker hole, some sixteen feet up. Herefrom, at a slight rap, appeared a Saw- whet. Returning, down -stream, at dusk, about a mile above this point, I suddenly heard a Saw-whet's song. When very near the spot whence the sound proceeded, I heard the doubled -time note ringing out, as if the bird were in motion ; and then instantly saw the male bird sweep down, from a stub -top, with a long downward and upward curve; and perch near by. The sound he made was strangely like the distant fire -warning of a steam whistle. The female seemed away at the moment, but before I was within six feet of the Flicker hole that marked her home, she darted by me, and into the hole. I could not dislodge her. The date of these two fi n d i n gs was May 14. Three days later, I opened the first of these two nests. The oung were about three - fourths grown. They bore no down, to speak of, but many pin -feathers. There were three of the (nuig birds. The mother allowed mc to take her in hand, her only protest being the snapping of her beak. There were but few pellets at the base of the nest-tree; while the nest-hollow contained no rubbish, but only the oung, the putrescent body of a gravid meadow-mouse, a Loring's red -backed mouse, and the tail of a jumping mouse. On May 29, these young were in full feather. While photographing them 1 could not but note the fur- tive manner of two of the 'oung birds; this amounting, at times, almost to the appearance of the feigning of ileath. The parents were not seen, and the Noung had Ic-ft the nest before June 5. On the 14th of June, I opened the second nest. The female kept the cavity persistently, returning several times while I was et in the tree. The nest -cavity was some twelve feet up. in the dead top of a still -living elm. The cavit contained sciuirrel-nest material. mingU-d with a few .s-vmi:t at nest-hoi.e