NORTHERN BARRED OWL 193 



I have repeatedly had one leave a nest in a deep hollow, aroused by 

 the slight rustling of dry leaves, as I tried to approach silently. Mr. 

 Bolles thought that his owls depended more on sight than on hearing 

 in securing their prey. He says that his owls not only drank but 

 took prolonged baths whenever fresh water was given to them, even 

 in the coldest weather. 



Mr. Shelley tells me that this owl has an acumen for detecting bait 

 at skunk traps set in burrows. In most cases the meat used as bait is 

 anointed with an oil obtained from trout. It is a very smelly oil and 

 seems to be enticing to owls, especially the barred owl, which has been 

 trapped in the mouths of burrows where the bait was covered and 

 could be detected only by a keen sense of smell. He gives an interest- 

 ing account in his notes of a wounded owl of this species that he nursed 

 back to health. The shot wounds had evidently produced a fever, for 

 the owl was very listless, refused all food, and drank water, "taking it 

 as a feverish person might." After two or three days of fasting, forced 

 feeding was tried with gradually improving results. At the end of 17 

 days the owl had entirely recovered and was liberated. 



Voice. — The barred owl is a noisy bird at all seasons, except when 

 there are young in the nest, when it is more quiet. Its vocal per- 

 formances are most spectacular and thrilling, loud, emphatic, and 

 quite varied. The antiphonal hootings of a pair of these owls, heard 

 at any time during the day or night, will hold the hearer spellbound ; 

 when heard close at hand at night, they are fairly startling, as if a pair 

 of demons were fighting. Once while I was fire-lighting for deer in the 

 Adirondacks, our canoe floated under an overhanging tree ; the peaceful 

 silence of our noiseless motion was rudely broken by a series of 

 unearthly yells over our heads; fully expecting to see a panther, or at 

 least a wildcat, jump into our canoe, we were greatly relieved to see a 

 pair of barred owls fly away. 



The ordinary call note, the one oftenest heard, consists of two groups 

 of four or five syllables each, given with a rhythmic swing and strongly 

 accented, loud, wild, and strenuous, hoo-hoo-to-hoo-ooo, hoo-hoo-hoo- 

 to-whooo-ooo ; the first two syllables in the former group and the first 

 three in the latter group are distinct, deliberate, and low-toned; the 

 last two are run together, with a strong accent on the next to the last, 

 which is the loudest of all, rising in pitch and then sliding down the 

 scale and diminishing in volume as the final sjdlable ends. 



There are many variations in this call, which is sometimes reduced to 

 three, or even two, syllables, or only one group is given. Another 

 variation is ho-ho-ho-to-hoo-ah, ending in a loud, harsh note. A cry 

 that seems to express anger sounds like ho-ho-to-whdh-ow, or whah- 

 whah-whah-to-hoooo, with loud, nasal, rasping notes, as of derisive 

 laughter. Again I have heard two or three soft hooting notes of uni- 

 form rhythm and with little accent, in a deep base tone much like the 



