174 KEPOET OF IS^EW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



373 Otus asio (Linnaeus). 

 Screech Owl. 



PLATE 34. 



Adults. — Length, 8-10. Wing, 6-7. Two phases — (1) Bright rufous above 

 with black shaft lines, and scapulars spotted with white ; tail and wings barred 

 with dusky ; under parts, white, streaked with black and rufous ; feet and face, 

 white. (2) Brownish-gray above, streaked and vermiculated with dusky and 

 buff ; scapulars and wing feathers spotted with white ; under parts, white, 

 finely barred with gray and coarsely streaked with black. 



Young in first summer transversely barred above and below with gray, white 

 and rufous. 



Nest in hollow trees ; eggs, five to seven, white, 1.35 x 1.20. 



Common resident throughout the State. 



This is our most abundant and most familiar Owl, nesting in old 

 orchards, which furnish convenient natural hollows or old Wood- 

 peckers' nests. At dusk they frequently fly about one's head, snapping 

 their bills, and their hoot is familiar to all. This species is peculiar 

 among all our birds in exhibiting two phases of plumage independent 

 of age, sex or season. Eed and gray birds pair indiscriminately, and 

 the young in one family may be of either color. 



375 Bubo virginianus (Gmelin). 

 Great Horned Owl. 



Adults. — Length, male, 18-23; female, 22-25. Wing, 15-16. Upper parts 

 finely vermiculated with dark brown and white, the former predominating, and 

 more or less varied with rufous ; wings with broad dusky bars ; face, rufescent ; 

 throat, white ; breast rufescent, with large black blotches ; abdomen barred 

 with white and dusky ; feet, buff ; eyes, yellow. 



Nest usually an old nest of a Crow, etc. ; eggs, two to four, white, 2.25 x 1.85. 



A rather rare resident. ISTests have been found at Bay Head, Feb- 

 ruary 23d, 1907 (Hann) ; at Montclair, March 14th, 1903 (Callen- 

 der) ; two at Princeton (Babson), and one pair had young in an old 

 Great Blue Heron's nest near Salem in April, 1904 (Crispin). 



This is our largest Owl, except the very rare Great Gray Owl, and, 

 unlike all our other species, will take chickens and game birds when 

 opportunity offers. 



