Bales — On the American Barn Owl. 35 



and honor of Wilson. He vastly enriched the ornithological 

 literature of the world, and laid the foundation in this country 

 of that apparently fascinating drudgery, characterized " syn- 

 onymy," which is so easily degenerated into a bore. 



[Since writing tlae above, Rlioads' brief memoir of Geoi-ge Orel has 

 appeared in the Cassinia, No. XII, 1908 (issued March, 1909). The 

 author lias been unable to ascertain whetlier the subject of his 

 slvetch was born in Philadelphia or England. I have been informed 

 by Heniy T. Coates, who has it direct from AVillis P. Hazard, an 

 old-time collector of Wilson's, that Ord was born and had died in 

 the same house on Front street.] 



THE STATUS OF THE AMERICAN BARN OWL (StrLv 

 pratincola) IN PICKAWAY COUNTY, OHIO. 



BY B. R.- BALES, M.D. 



Like several other species, notably Bewick's Wren and the 

 Mockingbird, it has only been in comparatively recent years 

 that the Barn Owl has been considered an Ohio bird. In Dr. 

 J. M. Wheaton's " Report of the Birds of Ohio," published in 

 1880, only five instances of this bird's capture had been record- 

 ed in this state, and one of these specimens was taken in Pick- 

 away County. At the time that Dr. Howard Jones informed 

 Dr. Wheaton of the capture of this species in the summer of 

 1873, he also informed him of a specimen taken in the spring 

 of 1870, but for some unaccountable reason, this record was 

 not incorporated in Dr. Wheaton's Report. Both of these 

 birds were killed in the Scioto River bottoms, west of Circle- 

 ville. Only one of these was preserved, it being sent to the 

 JMuseum of Hobart College at Geneva. N. Y. On February 

 14, 1890, a specimen that had been taken in the Scioto River 

 bottom w'est of Circleville was brought to me ; this was the 

 first Barn Owl I had ever seen. In May of the following year, 

 1891, a bird of the year, fully feathered, was brought to me; 

 it had been shot at Forest Cemetery, which is bounded on one 

 side by the Ohio Canal, and is less than a mile north of Circle- 

 ville. 



In 1892, a specimen Avas shot at the Turney farm, about two 

 and one-half miles west of Circleville. and was mounted by 

 Mr. Oliver Davie for Mr. R. G. McCoy, who was living on 

 this farm at the time. 



