Suborder STRIGES. Owls. 



Family HTRTGID^. Barn Owls. 



Genus STRIX Lixx.eus. 



STRIX PRATINCOLA I'-onap. 



15; 



American Barn Owl. ('Jfio) 



Tawny or fulvous brown, delicately clouded or marbled with ashy or white, 

 and speckled with brownish-black ; below, a varying shade from nearly a pure 

 white to fulvous, with sparse sharp blackish speckling ; face, wliite to purplish - 

 brown, darker or black about the eyes ; the disk, bordeicit witli dark lirow ii : 

 wings and tail barred with brown, and finely niottUd like the back ; bill, 

 whiti.sh ; toes, yellowish. Fonafv : — Length, 17 iiHlics; wing, l.S : tail, .')L 

 Male ; — Rather less. 



Hab. — Warmer parts of North America, from the .Mid<llc States, Ohio 

 Valley and California, southward through Mexico. 



liiecds, in hollow trees, frc([uently in the towei- of ;i <hur(li or othci- high 

 buildings. 



Eggs, five to eleven ; soiled white. 



Alth<)U<,'li this H{)ecies, so rnucli like the Barn Owl of Britain, lias 

 long Iweii kiic)wii as an American bird, coming as far north as INIas.sa- 

 chusetts, it is only within the last few yeais that it has heen ohseiNcd 



