OWLS 



109 



SCREECH OWL 

 Otus asio asio {Linmcns) 



A. O. v. NumhcT J7J See Color Plate 56 



Other Names. — Little Horned Owl ; Gray Owl ; Red 

 Owl: Little Dukolot ; Mottled Owl; Shivering Owl. 



General Description. — LciiKth, 10 inches; spread of 

 wings. 22 inches. Dichromatic; in gray phase, hrown- 

 ish-gray dappled ; in red phase, pattern the same hnt 

 color chestnut-red. Ear-tufts, large and conspicuous; 

 four or five outer primaries notched or cut away on 

 inner wehs ; toes scantily feathered toward their tips. 



Color.^ Gr.w Ph.\.se — Anoi.Ts: Above, brown- 

 ish-gray finely mottled and streaked with black or 

 dusky, each feather with an irregidar center streak. 

 or chain of small spots connected along shaft, of the 

 same; inner webs of ear tufts coarsely mottled with 

 grayish-white, brownish-white, or pale huffy; shoidders, 

 mostly didl white to light buff, tipped and narrowly 

 margined with blackish ; across upper nape an indica- 

 tion of a lighter colored band, in the form of irregular 

 grayish-white or huffy spots, and across lower hindneck 

 often another of huffy (mostly concealed) spots; 

 secondaries, crossed by several narrow hands of paler 

 bufTy-grayish or pale dull huffy, each enclosing an 

 irregular dusky bar or transverse spot of dusky, the 

 general color, however, so broken by mottlings that 

 the bands are sometimes indistinct; outer webs of 

 outermost middle and greater coverts, with a large 

 spot of white or pale bufTy on or near the tip ; outer 

 webs of inner primaries, with square spots of lighter 

 cinnamon, these becoming larger and paler on the three 

 or four longest primaries ; tail, crossed by seven or 

 eight irregular, broken, narrow bands of lighter grayish- 

 brown ; face, dull grayish-white, witli an area of deep, 

 mottled or streaked, brown immediately above eye ; 

 "eyebrows," sides of head, and below eyes, narrowly 

 barred with dusky, the feathers of lores with con- 

 spicuously black shafts and bristly tips ; facial rim. 

 mostly black, especially from behind ears to sides of 

 throat; chin dull white; throat, dull white suffused with 

 pale cimiamon-buff, narrowly barred and streaked with 

 black; a small area of immaculate dull white in center 

 of foreneck; center line of abdomen, together with 



anal region, immaculate buffy white; rest of under 

 parts, white (sometimes faintly tinged with pale buff), 

 broken by a rather dense narrow irregular barring of 

 black and broad center streaks of the same, these 

 connected or confluent with the bars, and on sides of 

 breast eidarged into conspicuous spots, which are often 

 edged with light rusty ; frequently, on sides and flanks, 

 pairs of the black bars enclose a space of pale brown; 

 legs light cinnamon-buff, fading into dull whitish on 

 lower and rear portions of tarsi, the thighs nearly 

 immaculate but leg-plumes heavily barred with dark 

 brown, at least on upper portion ; longer under tail- 

 coverts with rear portion barred or spotted with black 

 and light brown; bill, pale dull greenish-blue; iris, 

 bright lemon-yellow, the eyelids jet-black; toes and 

 basal portion of claws, yellowish-gray, the terminal 

 portion of claws, dusky. Young: Wings and tail as 

 in adults ; upper parts, deep grayish-brown indistinctly 

 and rather broadly barred with dusky, many of the 

 feathers tipped with dull white; under parts, dull white 

 broadly barred with grayish dusky ; no streaks on upper 

 or under parts. Kufescknt Pii.\se — Adults; General 

 pattern of coloration much as in the gray phase, but the 

 gray or brown everywhere replaced by bright chestnut- 

 rufous, the upper parts without the blackish; streaks 

 narrower and linear; face, plain light cinnamon-rufous, 

 the lores and over eye. whitish ; under parts with pattern 

 less intricate, the blackish or dusky bars of the gray 

 phase replaced by transverse spots of cinnamon-rufous. 

 Young: Similar to young of the gray phase, but the 

 grayish or grayish-brown markings rufescent. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : In a deserted Woodpecker 

 hole, in natural hollow in a tree or stump, in outbuild- 

 ings, or in boxes placed in trees for their use. Eggs : 

 4 or 5, white, laid on a few sticks, bits of grass, leaves, 

 and feathers. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America from Min- 

 nesota, Ontario, and New Brunswick south to north- 

 eastern Texas and Georgia, and west to about the looth 

 meridian ; accidental in England. 



One wonders how the man who named this 

 bird the " Screech " Owl, would feel about a 

 real screech, and how he would describe it. For 

 the bird's characteristic cry is a singularly 

 mournful and plaintive little wail, with never the 

 slightest suggestion of a screech about it. Any 

 term which would have denoted lament, appre- 

 hension, and incidentally a severe chill, would 

 have been appropriate ; in fact the name, " Shiv- 

 ering " Owl, by which the bird is coinmonly 

 known in the South, has the advantage of being 

 doubly significant, since the shivering note gives 

 superstitious folk the " shivers " also. 



From the naturalist's point of view, the most 

 remarkable peculiarity of this Owl is what is 



technically called its " dichromatism," which 

 means its tendency to develop two very distinct 

 plumage phases, a red and a gray. There is no 

 satisfactory explanation of this curious idiosyn- 

 crasy. As William Dutcher says, " a bird of one 

 color may be mated with a bird of another color, 

 and all of their young may be of one color, either 

 red or gray, or the parents may be of one color 

 and the young of mixed colors ; hence this is 

 often called the Mottled Owl. The only other 

 Owl that might possibly be confounded with it is 

 the Saw-whet [Acadian], which lacks ear-tufts, 

 is brown, and does not have black wing-shafts." 

 One instance is reported in which a captive gray 

 Screech Owl was fed liver exclusively, and its 



