A New Breeding Record of the Wandering Tattler in Alaska

I' Auk 2•0 General Notes œVol.76 observations of nests located in stumps.Notably, the three examples to come to my attention all relate to Barred Owls in Florida.Bent (1958: 198) mentions a nest in the Kissimmee Prairie region "in an open cavity on the top of an oak stub only 6 feet high, in a dense hammock of large live oaks."The other two nests of this sort were found by Roy C. Hallman in a cypress swamp in St. Johns County from which the larger trees had been cut: one, March 25, 1934, in a hollow cypress stump three feet high, and one, March 4, 1956, in a similar fourfoot stump.The single egg in each of the nests rested on dead cypress needles and rotten wood near ground level.The two nest locations were approximately 40 feet apart and, in all probability, the nests belonged to the same pair.Bent (1938: 184) has recorded other instances of the persistent attachment of Barred Owls to particular patches of woods in the face of disturbance by lumbering.I am much indebted to Mr. Hallman for permitting me to mention these records and to examine photographs of a parent bird at the first nest taken by Samuel A. Grimes.Two of the photographs have been published (Bird-Lore, $6:.facing p. 283, 1934; Florida Nat., 10: 64, 1957): the first bears a brief explanatory legend, the other has no description of the circumstances involved.These stump nests, being located in natural cavities and within forest habitats, do not provide a close parallel to the ground nest here reported.They may, however, suggest that the Barred Owl in its Florida range is more prone to utilize unusually low nesting sites.Individuals that depart markedly from the norm in choice of a nest site are of interest, hecause each such episode holds the potential of increasing the ecological amplitude and geographical range of the species, should it succeed and become established in part of the population.In the present instance, the source of the pioneering impulse is obscure, because typical Barred Owl nest sites are available nearby.The sawgrass marsh that predominates around Seven-Mile Fire Tower, encloses many island stands of mixed subtropical hardwood forest where natural cavities are present, if not plentiful, and both the Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) and Common Crow (Comus brachyrhynchos) nest regularly in the immediate vicinity.BENmgZ, G.E. •80•.Life Histories of North American Birds.Special Bulletin No. I. IT. S. Natl.Mus.BENT. A. G. 1.0.$8.Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey.Part •.IT. $.Natl.Mus.. Bull.170.HOWELL, A. H. 1OS•.Florida Bird Life.HOLT, E.G. AND Su'rroN, G. M. 1Oa6.Notea on birds observed