296 HISTORY OF THE 



ferring to escape by hopping noiselessly away and hiding in the 

 thick growths surrounding them. They feed chiefly upon mice 

 and other small nocturnal rodents, also insects, and occasionally 

 birds, but the latter are not so easily found, and do not appear 

 to be their natural prey. 



Their nests are placed in trees and bushes; a coarse, bulky 

 structure made of sticks, and sparingly lined with grasses oi 

 strips of bark and feathers; often in remodeled Hawks' and 

 Crows' nests. Eggs four to six, 1.63x1.30; white; inform, sub- 

 spherical. 



Asio accipitrinus (Pall.)- 



SHORT-EARED OWL. 

 PLATE XX. 



Kesident; common. Begin laying the last of April to first 

 of May. 



R 5-^. R. 396. C. 47.3. G. 183, 139. U. 367. 



Habitat. Tlie entire continent of America, and nearly 



throughout the eastern hemisphere. 



Sp. Char. '■'Adult: Ground color of the head, neck, back, scapulars, rump 

 and lower parts pale ochraceous; each feather (except on the rump) with a 

 medial longitudinal stripe of blackish brown — these broadest on the scapulars; 

 on the back, nape, occiput and jugulum the two colors about equal; on the 

 lower parts the stripes grow narrower posteriorly, those on the abdomen and 

 sides being In the form of narrow lines. The flanks, legs and anal region and 

 lower tail coverts are always perfectly immaculate; the legs most deeply ochra- 

 ceous, the lower tail coverts nearly pure white. The rump has obsolete cres- 

 centric marks of brownish. The wings are variegated with the general dusky 

 and ochraceous tints, but the markings are more irregular; the yellowish, in 

 form of indentations or confluent spots, approaching the shafts from the edge 

 — broadest on the outer webs. Secondaries crossed by about five bands of 

 ochraceous, the last terminal; primary coverts plain blackish brown, with one 

 or two poorly defined transverse series of ochraceous spots on the basal portion. 

 Primaries ochraceous on the basal two-thirds, the terminal portion clear dark 

 brown, the tips (broadly) pale brownish yellowish — this obsolete on the long- 

 est; the dusky extends toward the bases, in three to five irregularly transverse 

 series of quadrate spots on the outer webs, leaving, however, a large basal area 

 of plain ochraceous — this somewhat more whitish anteriorly. The ground 

 color of the tail is ochraceous — this somewhat whitish exteriorly and terminally 

 — crossed by five broad ba.nds (about equaling the ochraceous, but becoming 

 narrower toward outer feathers) of blackish brown; on the middle feathers the 

 ochraceous spots enclose smaller, central transverse spots of blackish; the ter- 

 minal ochraceous band is broadest. Eyebrows, lores, chin and throat soiled 

 while, the loral bristles with black shafts; face dingy ochraceous white, feathers 



