174 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
YOUNG BARN OWL. 
From a photograph by T, H. Jacxson 
tremely difficult to tame and seldom live long in captivity unless 
reared from the nest by hand. 
The Short-Eared Owl, Asio accipitrinus (Pall.), is, for several 
reasons, of especial interest. It is one of the most widely dis- 
tributed of all birds. The keenest systematists can not distinguish 
between specimens from Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South 
America and the Hawaiian Islands. It is absent only from west 
Africa, Australia, and the adjacent Pacific Islands. 
Although so closely related to the Long-Eared Owl, this is a 
bird of very different habits. Its favorite haunts are open, grassy 
marshes and its nest is placed invariably upon the ground. It is so 
far diurnal that in cloudy weather and occasionally in bright sun- 
shine, it may be seen hunting its prey. It differs from many owls 
in that it has strong instincts of migration, nesting often on the 
Arctic tundras of the far north and coming southward in winter. 
At such times large flocks may be observed in our salt marsh- 
lands. 
This habit of congregation, even at the breeding season, has at 
times been of the greatest value to man, as when in Scotland 
during a plague of voles or field mice, these owls appeared sud- 
denly in surprising numbers and as many as four hundred of their 
