.--On February 19,
1933, I flushed three Long-cared Owls (Asio wilsonianus) from an evergreen in
an old cemetery four miles northeast of Saline, Michigan. From beneath this
tree I gathered up just 200 pellets, indicating that the birds had been roosting
in this tree during much of the winter. The cemetery was a half mile from the
nearest parcel of timber, a swampy piece of woods of some extent. hnmediately
adjacent to the cemetery on the east and south was plowed land; across the road
to the west and north was pasture. I made the analysis of the pellets in the
laboratories of the Museum of Zoology, at Ann Arbor, where I had the advice and
assistance of Dr. Lee R. Dice and Dr. Josselyn Van Tyne. The results of the
work were as follows: 170 Microtus, 21 Pcromyscus, 3 Synaptomys, 4 Blarina
and 1 English Sparrow (Passer domesticas). The preponderance of Microtus
would indicate feeding in the open, although occasional forays into the nearby
timber would yield Peromyscus in some numbers. Synaptomys is rare anywhere
in Michigan, and while Blarina is not rare, the fact that it lives in burrows would
explain its comparative absence from the bill of fare. Could a like number of
pellets be obtained from this immediate vicinity in successive years, their exami-
nation should give indication of any fluctuation in small mammalian biota from
year to year.--C}^s. J. Sm