OWLS 



lOI 



Most Owls whose habits arc essentially noc- 

 turnal pass the daylight hours in hollow trees or 

 in other cavities or recesses in which little or no 

 lij^'ht can enter. The Long-eared species, how- 

 ever, though it does all of its hunting at night 

 usually spends the day perched in thick foliage 

 of evergreen or other densely leaved trees. When 

 discovered in such a hiding ])lace its characteris- 

 tic performance is to raise itself to its full height, 

 compress its feathers close to its body and ele- 

 vate its ear-tufts, in which protective and rather 

 comical pose, it looks more like a stub, or " a 

 piece of weatherbeaten bark than a bird." 



Unlike that of the Great Horned Owl and 

 other members of the Owl family, this bird's 

 flight is rather wavering and uncertain, suggest- 

 ing that of a \\'hii)-i)oor-wil! ; but like theirs it is 

 entirclv noiseless, and silence is, of course, more 

 effective than mere sjieed with a great rushing 

 of wings would be to a bird of its habits. It has 

 several characteristic cries, one of which re- 

 sembles the yap] ling of small dogs, and another 

 the mew-ing of kittens, while at close quarters 

 with an intruder it is likely to snap its beak and 

 hiss with a great show of ferocity. This Owl 

 is not infrequently seen in considerable flocks. 



The Long-eared Owl is an industrious niouscr, 



and molests comparatively few birds. Dr. 

 I'isher examined 107 stomachs of this Owl, of 

 which fifteen were empty. Of the ninety-two 

 remaining, eighty-six, or over 93 per cent., con- 

 tainecl riMuains of small mammals. As the bird 



Photo by H. K. Job Courtesy of Outini; Pub. Co. 



YOUNG LONG-EARED OWLS 



is common all over the United States, it does an 

 enormous amount of good. Like the Sparrow 

 TIawk, this Owl is easily destroyed, and so is one 

 (if the greatest sufferers when bounties are paid 

 for the destruction of birds of prey. 



SHORT-EARED OWL 



Asio flammeus (Fontoppidan) 



\. (I. l_'. Xviniher 307 See Color Plate 56 



Other Names. — Marsh Owl ; Swamp Owl ; Prairie 

 Owl. 



General Description. — Length, 14 inches; spread of 

 wings. 42 inches. Color, a variegation of yellowish- 

 white and dark brown. Ear-tufts, rudimentary and 

 inconspicuous. 



Color. — .\dults : General color of head, neck, back, 

 shoulders, rump, and under parts, light ochraceous to 

 buffy-white (the individual variation being very great), 

 each feather, e.xcept on rump, with a center stripe of 

 dark brown or blackish-brown, the stripes broadest on 

 shoulders, back of head, hindneck, back, and chest with 

 the ochraceous (or bufTy) and brown about equal in 

 extent, but on the under parts the brown stripes 

 becoming gradually narrower behind, until on abdomen 

 and sides they form narrow lines ; flanks, legs, anal 

 region, and under tail-coverts, immaculate, the last 

 nearly (sometimes quite) pure white, the legs more 

 deeply buflfy or ochraceous; rump more reddish-bufTy 

 or ochraceous, with indistinct crescentic markings of 

 brown ; wing-coverts coarsely variegated with irregular 

 markings of dusky-brown and ochraceous or bufTy, the 



latter in form of indentations or confluent spots along 

 edges of feathers, broadest on outer webs ; secondaries, 

 dusky-brown crossed by about five bands of ochraceous 

 or huffy, the last one terminal ; primaries, ochraceous 

 or bulT on inner two-thirds (more or less), the end 

 portion dusky-brown, tipped (broadly) with huffy, this 

 becoming indistinct or obsolete on longest quills, the 

 dusky-brown continued in three to five irregularly 

 transverse series of square spots on outer webs, leaving, 

 however, a large basal area of plain ochraceous or 

 huffy, which sometimes passes into white in front; 

 primary coverts, plain blackish-brown, with one or two 

 indistinct transverse series of ochraceous spots on 

 mid<lle portion; tail, ochraceous or buff passing into 

 white, crossed by about five bands of blackish-brown, 

 about equal in width to the ochraceous or bufTy inter- 

 spaces on middle feathers but becoming narrower on 

 outer ones, the ochraceous or huffy interspace on the 

 former enclosing central transverse spots of dusky, 

 the terminal ochraceous or huffy band broadest on all 

 the feathers ; " eyebrows," lores, chin, and throat, dull 

 white, the loral bristles with black shafts ; face, dingy 



