426 PREYING BIRDS — RAPTORES. 



Otus Wilsonianus, Lesson, 



THE LONG-EAEED OWL. 



Strix otus, Wilson, Am. Orn. VI. 73; pi. 51, f. 3. — Audubon, Birds Amer. pi. 383; 



Oct. ed. I. ; pi. 37. — Nuttall, Man. I. 139. (Not of Liiinaius, the European species.) 

 Strix Americana, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I. 1788, 288. — Otus Amcricanus, Bonapaete, Comp. 



List, 1838, 7. — Pr. Max. Cab. Jour. 1858, 25. 

 Otus Wilsonianus, Lesson, Traite' d'Orn. I. 1831, 110. — Cassin, P. R. Rep. Birds, IX. 53. 



— Cooper and Suckley, XII. iii. Zool. of W. T. 155, — CouES, Pr. Phil. Acad. 



1866, 50. 



Sp. Cii.\n. Above mottled -svith brownish-black, fulvous, and ashy ■■white, the former 

 predominating. Breast pale fulvous, with stripes of brownish-black ; abdomen white, every 

 feather with a wide stripe crossed by others of brownish-black ; legs and toes pale fulvous, 

 xisually unspotted, frequently with irregular dark-brown bars. Eye nearly encircled by 

 black ; other feathers of the face ashy-white, with minute lines of black ; ear-tufts brown- 

 isli-ljlack, edged with fulvous and ashy-white ; quills pale fulvous at their bases, with irreg- 

 ular transverse brown bands ; lower wing coverts ])ale fulvous, frequently nearly white ; 

 the larger widely tipped with black ; tail brown, with several irregular transverse bands 

 of ashy-fulvous, mottled as on the quills Length, 1.3.00 to 15.00 ; extent, 35 00 to 38 00 ; 

 wing, 1 1.00 to 1-2.00 ; tail, 5.00 to 6.00. Iris yellow ; bill and claws horn-black. 



Ilah. All of temperate North America. 



I found tliis owl quite common near San Diego, and in March observed 

 them sitting in pair.s in the evergreen oaks, apparently not much troubled 

 l)y the light. One which I shot was much infested hy insects, which may 

 have caused them to leave the hollow tvees. On the 27tli of !March I 

 found a nest, perliaps that of a crow, built in a low evergreen oak, in which 

 a female owl was sitting on five eggs, then lialf hatched. The liird was 

 quite bold, flying round and snapping her bill at me, I took one egg, and 

 on the 2.3d of April fotmd the rest hatched. In trying to draw me away 

 from the nest, the female imitated the cries of wounded birds in a remark- 

 ably accurate manner, showing a power of voice not heretofore attributed to 

 the owls, but indicating their affinity to the parrots. 



The eggs are white, measuring 1,60 X 1.36 inches, and rounded at both 

 ends about equally, like those of most other owls. 



According to Nuttall, the cry of this owl is a plaintive and hollow moan- 

 ing, sounding like " clow cloud," and incessantly repeated during the night. 

 I have not heard this in California, but it is doubtless correct. 



This, as well as the great horned owls, wanders into the liarren, treeless 

 deserts east of the Sierra Xevada, and may he found quite frequently in 

 autumn hiding in the thickets of willows along the streams, wliere the sun 

 shines with scarcely diminished brightness. They also resort to caves, 

 where there are any to be found. 



