174 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



winter plumage, which is much like that of the adult, soon begins to 

 appear through the downy plumage, and the latter is gradually 

 molted while the wings and tail are growing. By September or 

 October, or perhaps earlier in early hatched birds, the young bird is 

 fully clothed in a firm plumage, which is practically adult. 



Adults have a complete, annual molt between August and Novem- 

 ber. Witherby (1924) says that a molt of the body plumage occurs 

 between January and March. Although the manuals do not mention 

 it, I have noticed that adult males, perhaps the oldest birds, average 

 much paler in color than the females. Some of the old males have an 

 almost pure-white ground color on the belly, only faintly cream- 

 white on the breast, and pure white on the tibiae and under tail 

 coverts; in these birds the light edges above vary from "cream-buff" 

 to white. On the other hand, the darkest females are colored 

 "ochraceous-buff" to "warm buff" on these parts. These differences 

 may be color phases or partially due to age or seasonal changes, but 

 there seems to be an average sexual difference. 



T. Russell Goddard (1935), while studying short-eared owls in 

 England, discovered "that there were two distinct colour forms 

 * * * — a brown form and a grey form. Of the six birds under 

 observation during April and May three were brown and three were 

 grey. They were paired in the following manner — two browns, two 

 greys and a grey male paired with a brown female. The grey form 

 was literally a cold grey without any warm brown about it at all. 

 The feathers on the breast and tarsi, which in the brown form are a 

 warm buff, were white in the grey form. The grey form of the Short- 

 eared Owl was, in fact, quite as cold in colour as the extreme grey form 

 of the tawny owl (Strix aluco)."] 



Food. — The short-eared owl is the friend of man, and if he had been 

 treated as he deserved and not shot on sight — as is man's stupid and 

 cruel habit — the damage to our young orchards by mice, now so 

 common, would be less. Rodents of various kinds, particularly 

 meadow or field mice (Microtus), which do so much harm, are his 

 favorite food. Dr. A. K. Fisher (1893b) reports the findings in the 

 stomach of 101 short-eared owls as follows: "1 contained small 

 birds; 77, mice; 7, other mammals; 7, insects, and 14 were empty." 

 Of the mice, nearly all were meadow mice, a few white-footed, pine, 

 and house mice. Six shrews, a cotton rat, a rabbit, and a pocket 

 gopher were the other mammals listed. A grackle, a red-winged 

 blackbird, 4 juncos, 11 sparrows of various species, and a robin were 

 the bird victims. 



Junius Henderson (1927) states that 75 percent of the food of this 

 owl consists of mice and that it is more insectivorous than any other 

 of our owls except the burrowing and perhaps the screech owl. One 

 stomach contained 50 grasshoppers, one 18 May beetles, and one 13 



