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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



screech-owl, with its staring eyes and pert, ear-like tufts, has a de- 

 cidedly cattish look. In truth, it wears a grave, grimalkin cast of 

 countenance, which, in a bird, is quite uncanny and unnatural. A 

 mounted specimen in my parlor was an object of dread to a little girl 

 visiting us from the city. It availed nothing to tell the child that 

 little Motley would not hurt her, while the unbird-like little thing 

 would stare at her so. 



To the naturalist Scops asio has been a provoking elf. It is to 

 be hoped that the sage-looking little fellow did not scoff behind his 

 gravity at these learned men, or count any of them asinine whom he 

 so misled by his eccentric freakiness in dress. Coming before a man 

 of science at one time wearing a suit of sober frieze, again appearing 

 in mottled gray, and anon clad gayly in tawny red, how ludicrously 

 easy and inviting was the trick of specie-making ! Well, that con- 

 troversy is over now, and to write the sti'ife down as history would be 

 enough to make Motley bristle to his toes. 



The American long-eared owl ( Otus Wilsonianus, Less.) (Fig, 5), 



Fig. 5. American Long-eaked Owl {Otus Wilsonianus). 



is a fine bird, some fifteen inches long, and is strictly nocturnal. It 

 often breeds in deserted nests of other large birds; but is not over- 

 scrupulous, as it will sometimes drive away the rightful occupant of 

 a nest, and take possession. The facial disk is perfect. Its home is 

 temperate America, up to Hudson's Bay. " Its cry is plaintive, con- 

 sisting of two or three prolonged notes repeated at intervals." 



3. The Syrnince, or gray owls. In this sub-family is found the 

 largest bird of the species known in America ; also the smallest speci- 

 men east of the Mississippi. Their tails are large and round. Even 

 for owls, they have large heads, but smallish eyes, and no ear-tufts, or 

 these almost unnoticeable. One of these is represented by Fig. 6, the 

 barred owl {Syrnium nehulosum, Boie). The average size is twenty 



