STRIGID.E: OTHER OWLS. 



623 



A. pratin'cola. (Lat. pratincola, meadow-inhabitiug.) American Barn Owl. Monkey- 

 faced Owl. Above, iucliuliug upper surfaces of wiugs and tail, tawny, fulvous, or orange- 

 brown, delicately clouded or marbled with ashy and white, and dotted with blackish, some- 

 times also with white ; such marking resolved, or tending to resolve, into 4 or 5 bars of dark 

 mottling on the wings and tail. Below, including lining of wings, varying from pure white 

 to tawny, ochrey, or fulvous, but usually paler than upper parts and dotted with small but 

 distinct blackish specks. Face varying from white to fulvous or purplish-brown, in some 

 shades as if stained with claret, usually quite dark or even black. About eyes, and border of 

 disc, dark brown. Thus extremely variable in tone of coloration, but the pattern more constant, 

 while the generic characters render the bird unmistakable. Nestlings covered with tiufFy 

 white down. Length 15.00-17.00 or more ; e.\tent about 44.00 ; wing 13.00-14.00 ; tail 6.00- 

 7.00; bill 0.95; tarsus 2.75. 9 hxrger than ^. The superior size is the chief distinction 

 from the Old World A. flammeus, of which I have kept it as a subspecies in all previous edi- 

 tions of the Key, and now accord it full rank with much misgiving, in deference to the A. 0. U. 

 U. S. from Atlantic to Pacific ; somewhat southerly, rarely known N. to Massachusetts, New 

 York, southern Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Washington; S- into Mexico, 

 West Indies and Central America ; abundant in wooded, settled, and especially maritime 

 regions ; resident in most of its range, but only migratory or irregular northerly ; gregarious at 

 times ; nests from January to May in different latitudes or localities ; broods one or two a year. 

 Breeds naturally in liollow trees, or holes in the ground, frequently in barn, belfry, tower, or 

 other building; eggs 3-11 or indefinitely numerous, ordinarily 5-7 in number, dead white, or 

 soiled yellowish-white, about 1.75 X 1.25, nearly equal-ended or more ovate, laid with little 

 or no prepai-atiou upon the debris of the hole, commonly bones and other refuse of food, 

 which is chiefly small quadrupeds and insects. Eggs in diS'erent stages of incubation, even 

 fresh eggs and young, may be found together in the nest. This is the bird which figures every 

 now and then in the nevA-spapers as the " monkey " or " monkey-faced " Owl. (^Strix flammea 

 var. americana Coues, Key, 1872, p. 201 ; Alnco flammeus pratincola of 2d-4th eds. of the 

 Key, after S- pratincola Bp. 183S.) The latter is the right specific name, but coupled with 

 the wrong generic name, in the A. 0. U. List, No. 365. 



Family STRIGID^ : Other Owls. 

 (Fam. BUBONID.E of A. 0. U. Lists.) 



All other Striges, as far as . 

 known, have the sternum once 

 or twice notched on each side be- 

 hind, with a manubrium in front, 

 and the furculum free or even 

 defective, being represented l>y a 

 pair of stylets, which do not jniu 

 in one bone. There is a bony 

 canal for jjassage of the comninu 

 extensor tendon of the toes. Tlie 

 outer ear-parts are sometimes as 

 higlily developed as in Aliico- 

 nid(C, or tliey may be ((uite small. 

 When large, with a reversible 

 iiap or operculum, the ear-parts tend to become unsymmetricil on right and left sides of the 

 head; and this asymmetry is often carried so far as to attcct the sluipe of the whole skull, 



Via. 427. — Mobl)ii>K in owl. (From Mii-helct.) 



