210 NOTES ON THE 



SYRNirM NEBrLOSrn (Forster.) (368.) 

 BARRED OWL. 



Next to the Great Horned Owl, the Barred Owl is the most 

 numerous of any species of its family in Minnesota. Yet they 

 are less so here than in Illinois, or than formerly so there. They 

 are slightly (I think considerably) migratory in the southern 

 portions of the State, moving southward somewhat in severe 

 winters, but in the pine regions they are not so, for I have 

 obtained specimens from time to time from lumber camps 

 during the hardest winters we have ever experienced. During 

 the summer season many of them get distributed over the 

 entire prairie regions, when they are even more easily obtained 

 there than in the densest timber regions. I have found them 

 in the vicinity of Duluth with little difficulty and hunters 

 report them frequently met with in duck hunting, particularly 

 in spring shooting. Several nests have been discovered 

 within the vicinity of Princeton and two or three near the 

 north arm of Lake Minnetonka. They breed as early as any 

 other species, if Bubo virginianus is excepted, the eggs having 

 been once brought to me fresh on March tenth. They are 

 pure white, subspherical in form and from four to five in 

 number. The structure of the nest is quite bulky and is gen- 

 erally located in a fork of a tree fifty or sixty feet from the 

 ground. It consists of sticks and leaves principally. 



The food of the Barred Owls consists chiefly of field mice, 

 reptiles and small birds. At the dawn of morning and again 

 at evening, "twilights mystic hour," it may often be seen 

 floating silently along the border of the woods or over the 

 meadows in quest of its humble game, so near the grass or 

 grain that the wings seem to rest upon it. It cannot be re- 

 garded as especially a woodland bird, for they are quite as 

 frequently met with far out on the prairies where not even a 

 bush can be seen for many weary miles. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Head large, without ear tufts; tail rather long; upper parts 

 light ashy-brown, frequently tinged with dull yellow with 

 transverse narrow bands of white most numerous on the head 

 and neck behind, broader on the back; breast with transverse 

 bands of brown and white: abdomen ashy -white, with longi- 

 tudinal stripes of brown; tarsi and toes ashy- white, tinged 

 with fulvous, generally without spots but frequently mottled 

 with dark brown; quills brown with six or seven transverse 



