72 NORTH AMERICAN OOLOGY. PART I. 



SYRNIUM NEBULOSUM. 



Strix ncbulosa, FORSTER, Trans. Philos. Soc. London, LXII, 1772, 386 and 424. 



WILS. Am. Orn. Biog. IV, 1812, 61, pi. xxxiii, fig. 2. 

 " BONAP. Syn. 1828, p. 38. 



EICH. & SWAINS. F. B. A. II, 1831, 81. 

 " NUTTALL, Manual, I, 1832, 133. 



" AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 242 ; V, 386, pi. xlvi. 



" " DE KAY, Nat. Hist. N. Y. 1844, pi. x, fig. 21. -. 

 Strix chichictli, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 296. 

 Slrix acclamator, BARTRAM, Trav. 1791, p. 289. 

 Strix varius, BARTRAM, Mss. Frag. Nat. Hist/Penn. 1799, p. 11. 

 Strix fernandica, SHAW, Gen. Zool. VII, 1809, 263. 

 Ulula nehilosa, BONAP. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 7. 

 Syrnium nelulosum, GOULD, Birds of Europe, I, 1832, pi. xlvi. 



AUD. Syn. 1839, p. 27. 

 " " Birds of Am. I, 1840. 



CASSIN, Syn. N. A. Birds (Illust. Birds of Cal.), 1854, p. 184. 



VULG. The Barred Owl. The Wkooting Owl (Bartram). La Chouette du Canada (Cuvier). 

 Chouette Nebuleuse (Tcmm.). 



THE Barred Owl has an extended range, having been met with nearly throughout 

 North America. It is distributed from the fur regions to Texas. Minnesota is the 

 most western point to which, so far as I am aware, it has been traced. It is more 

 abundant in the Southern States than elsewhere, and in the more northern portions 

 of North America is somewhat rare. Richardson did not encounter it in the more 

 Arctic portion of the fur countries, nor has it, so far as I can learn, been observed 

 on the Pacific. In Europe, it is of accidental occurrence in the northern parts. In 

 Louisiana, as Mr. Audubon states, it is more abundant than anywhere else, and Dr. 

 Woodhouse speaks of it as very common in the Indian Territories, and also in Texas 

 and New Mexico, especially in the timbered lands bordering the streams and ponds 

 of that region. In July, 1846, while in pursuit of shore birds in the island of 

 Muskeget, near Nantucket, in the middle of a bright day, I was surprised by meet- 

 ing one of these birds, who, uninvited, joined us in the hunt. My companion soon 

 arrested his course. He proved to be a fine male adult specimen. 



I have never met with the nest of this bird, but Mr. Wilson describes one found 

 in the crotch of a white oak, among thick foliage, as rudely put together, composed 

 outwardly of sticks intermingled with some dry grass and leaves, and lined with 

 smaller twigs. Mr. Audubon speaks of them as breeding in the hollows of trees, 

 and at other times as taking possession of the old nest of a Crow or Hawk. The 

 latter also states that they breed early in March. The last statement is to some 

 extent confirmed by the fact, that, in two instances, in the month of February a fully 

 developed egg has been taken from the oviduct of the female. One of these cases 

 occurred near Niagara Falls in the spring of 1852. The other, in 1854, was noticed 

 by Professor William Hopkins, then of Auburn, N. Y., to whose kindness I am in- 

 debted for the egg the parentage of which is so unquestionable. It is purely white, 



