342 NATUliAL IIISTUIIY OF DUtDS. 



the otiior «liinpnsions in ]>ri)|)(iiaion. The phiniieoriis are about two inclies long, and 

 thu geiui.s is jieciiliur to trojiical Ainorica. 



A fair representative of the remaining species is the common mottleil-owl or screech- 

 owl, Scops asio, so generally dislrilmled through the United States, where it is one of 

 the commonest of tlie smaller s])ecies, and, except along our southern border, the only 

 small owl wliich has ])lumicorns. It siiows in its jierfection the dimorjihism wliieli is 

 so common in this genus as well as in Glaiicidinm and several others, but its habits 

 appear to be about the same everywhere. 



It is strictly nocturnal, or crepuscular, feeds mostly on mice and similar vermin, 

 and almost invariably nests in the hollows of trees, where it lays five or six eggs in 

 April or May in the Middle and New England states. While its food is doubtless 

 mainly as mentioned above, yet it eats many insects, ]irobably catches small birds oc- 

 casionally, and would seem to be fond of lish from the following account by Mr. A. 

 M. Frazar, of Watertown, Mass. Mr. Frazar says: "On November 29, 1870, I took 

 from a mottled owl's hole the hinder half of a woodcock, P/iilohela minor. Within 

 two weeks after I took two owls from the same hole, and on tlie 19th of January last 

 I liad the good fortune to take another. After extracting the owl I put in my hand 

 to see wliat else there was of interest, and found sixteen horned-pouts, Amiurus atra- 

 rius, four of which were alive. When it occurred to me that all the ponds in the 

 vicinity were under at least two feet of snow and ice, I could scarcely conjecture 

 where the horned-pouts could have been captured. After visiting all the ponds, I 

 found they had most jirobably been cajjtured in one fully a mile away, where some 

 boys had been ('Utting holes through the ice to catch ])ickerel bait. The owl probably 

 stationed himself by the edge of the hole and seized the lisli as they came to the sur- 

 face. What a busy time he must Lave had flying thirty-two miles after sixteen 

 horned-pouts! " 



The ordinary cry of the mottled-owl is a tremulous and not unmusical series of 

 notes, and we have never heard a note from this 8i)ecies which would at all justify the 

 common name of screi'ch-ow'.. 



A beautiful iMexican and Central American species is the flammul.ited-owl, Scops 

 flammeolus, which lias been taken half a dozen times or more in California, Arizona, 

 and Colorado, and in the last-named state has been found breeding. This is one of 

 the smallest s])ecies of the genus, and readily distinguished from S. asio by its per- 

 fectly bare toes and very short plumicorns. 



The common 8])ecies of Euroj)e is the scops owl, Scops gin, which is slightly 



smaller than our common mottled-owl, and differs 

 further in its naked toes. In gener.il appearance 

 and ])lumage, however, they are quite similar, 

 though specific characters for their separation are 

 easily found, and it has even been jiroposed to 

 jilace the American birds of this genus in a sej)- 

 arate sub-genus, from that which should include 

 Fio. 160. — Fool of ScoiD gill. S. gill. In habits all the species seem to be quite 



similar; essentially nocturnal, and rarely nest- 

 ing anywhere except in hollow trees or deserted woodpeckers' lioles, though S. giu 

 h.as been known to l.iy its eggs in the deserted open nest of another bird, in a thick 

 evergreen tree. 



We now come to a group of three genera, in which the facial disk is very highly 



