182 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



during the spring of 1885 and again in May 1887 (Bryant, 1888, 

 p. 45). 



Egg dates. — Alaska and Arctic Canada: 6 records, June 10 to 30. 



Alberta and Manitoba: 9 records, May 5 to June 20. 



Dakotas and Minnesota: 17 records, March 20 to June 12 ; 9 records, 

 May 12 to 23, indicating the height of the season. 



Illinois, Kansas, and Nebraska: 7 records, April 8 to May 17. 



STRIX VARIA VARIA Barton 



northern barred owl 

 Plates 41-47 



HABITS 



In southern New England and southward, as well as through most 

 of its habitat east of the Prairie States, the barred owl is our commonest 

 large owl. I have had more experience with it than with any other 

 owl. It is a forest-loving bird, living mainly in the deep, dark woods, 

 heavily wooded swamps, gloomy hemlock forests, or thick growths of 

 tall, dense pines, where it spends most of the day in the quiet seclusion 

 of its shady retreats. In such resorts it is seldom disturbed, but when 

 its haunts are invaded it is not caught napping; it often greets the 

 intruder with its weird hooting notes and flies about quite actively, 

 even in broad daylight. Much of its hunting is done in the open 

 country and about the farms, and in fall and winter it occasionally 

 ventures into the villages and even into cities in search of food. 



Courtship. — The barred owl's courtship consists mainly of loud and 

 spectacular vocal efforts, indulged in by both sexes. Many a time, 

 late in winter or early in spring, I have listened to the weird love notes 

 of these, the noisiest of owls. From the dark shadows of the hem- 

 locks or pines they hoot again and again, answering each other with 

 loud, vehement calls, strongly accented with a rhythmic swing and 

 a wild, strenuous cadence of great carrying power. 



Edward H. Forbush (1927) witnessed a performance which I have 

 never seen; he writes: 



At one of my lonely wilderness camps in the month of March a pair of Barred 

 Owls came to the trees over my campfire and made night hideous with their 

 grotesque love-making, banishing sleep during the evening hours. Their court- 

 ing antics, as imperfectly seen by moonlight and firelight, were ludicrous in the 

 extreme. Perched in rather low branches over the fire they nodded and bowed 

 with half-spread wings, and wobbled and twisted their heads from side to side, 

 meantime uttering the most weird and uncouth sounds imaginable. Many of 

 them were given with the full power of their lungs, without any regard to the 

 sleepers, while others were soft and cooing and more expressive of the tender 

 emotions; sounds resembling maniacal laughter and others like mere chuckles 

 were interspersed here and there between loud wha whas and hoo-hod-aws. 



Nesting. — In the region where I hunt, in southeastern Massachu- 

 setts, the barred owl is decidedly our commonest large owl, but it is 



