98 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



BARN OWL 

 Aluco pratincola (Bonaparte) 



A. O- U. Number 365 See Color Plate 53 



Other Names. — Monkey-laced Owl; Golcien Owl; 

 White Owl; Munkey Owl; American Barn Owl. 



General Description. — Length, 18 inches ; spread of 

 wings, 44 inches. Plumage, whitish-tawny, speckled 

 with black. 



Color. — Average Plumage; Ground color of upper 

 parts, bright ochraccoiis-buff but this overlaid with a 

 delicate mottling of dusky and grayish-ivhitc, forming 

 a mottled grayish effect, each feather, except of wings 

 and tail, with a streak of black inclosing a small heart- 

 shaped, roundish, or drop-shaped (rarely linear) sub- 

 terminal spot of white; wings with the darker mottlings 

 condensed into indistinct transverse bands, which are 

 about 4 in number on secondaries and 5 on primaries ; 

 tail, varying from ochraceous-buff to white, mottled 

 with dusky, and crossed by about five bands of mottled 

 dusky; /arr, ic/nVc, tinged with purpKsh-brown, and with 

 an area of dark red-brown in front of and narrowly 

 surrounding eye ; facial circle or rim, soft ochra- 

 ceous-buff above (down to ears), deeper ochraceous- 

 buff below, where feathers of rear border are tipped 

 with dark brown; under parts, zvbite, but this suffused 

 or overlaid by ochraceous-buff and with numerous small 

 but distinct spots or dots of black; bill, dull yellowish; 

 iris, dark brown. Daric Extreme ; Under parts, wholly 



ochraceous-buff, speckled with black; upper parts as in 

 average plumage or somewhat darker; tace more 

 strongly tinged with purplish-brown. Light E.xtreme: 

 Face (except spot below eye) and entire under parts, 

 pure white, the latter sometimes immaculate ; facial 

 rim, white with tips of feathers (in part, at least) 

 orange-buff; wing and tail, sometimes uniformly 

 mottled or the latter sometimes white with bands of 

 mottled dusky. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest ; .Almost anywhere — in church 

 towers, outbuildings, hollow trees, holes in steep banks, 

 deserted nests, or even in ground burrows ; constructed 

 of a few sticks, hay, straw, bones, or other refuse. 

 Eggs: 3 to 11, usually 5 to 7, dull white, unspotted. 



Distribution. — Greater part of United States and 

 Mexico ; breeding north to Long Island, New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, western New York, Ohio, northern 

 Indiana, northern Illinois, southern Nebraska, Colo- 

 rado, and upper Sacramento valley, northern Cali- 

 fornia, and occurring, more or less irregularly, farther 

 northward to Massachusetts, Vermont, Ontario, Michi- 

 gan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, and southern 

 British Columbia; southward over whole of Mexico, 

 whole of Lower California, and eastern Central 

 America to eastern Nicaragua, at least in v/inter. 



YOUNG BARN OWLS 



