168 TENGMALM’S OWL. 
Its food consists of mice, small birds, moths, beetles, and 
other insects. It does not swallow its prey whole. 
The note sounds like the syllables ‘keu, keu, kook, kook,’ 
varied in the breeding-season into ‘kuk, kuk,’ repeated for 
several minutes at a time, at intervals of a minute or two. 
It is one of the superstitions of the Indians to whistle when 
they hear it, as sailors do in a calm when wishing for a 
breeze. The silence of the bird in reply, to use an Iricism, 
is considered an omen of death. 
These Owls are said to breed in holes of trees, half way up 
them, and as being deficient in such an ‘exhibition of industry,’ 
to make no manner of nest, or only to use a little grass for 
the purpose. 
The eggs are white, and two in number. 
Male; length, from eight inches and a half to mme and a 
half; bill, pale greyish yellow or bluish white, darker on the 
sides, hid at the base by the feathers. Cere, sometimes 
dashed with black; iris, pale yellow; the eyes are surrounded 
by a dark ring, forming a band, which is broadest on the 
inner side. Head, reddish brown, spotted with small yellowish 
white spots; the ruff yellowish or greyish white, mottled or 
streaked with black over the eyes; crown, reddish brown; 
neck, spotted behind as the head. Nape, as the head, the 
spots larger, forming a sort of band; chin and throat, brown 
and greyish white. Breast, yellowish or greyish white, 
indistinctly streaked with lighter brown on the centre of each 
feather in the upper part, but only the tip on the lower; 
back, as the head, but the spots larger. 
The wings expand to the width of one foot eleven inches; 
greater and lesser wing coverts, as the back, partially spotted 
with white. Primaries, reddish brown, barred on the outer 
webs with three or four oval white spots; the third and 
fourth are the longest in the wing, the latter the longer of the 
two; Meyer says the former. They reach to within an inch 
of the end of the tail. Tertiaries, the same, the spots more 
square; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white, clouded 
with brown. ‘Tail, reddish brown, slightly rounded, and 
barred with four or five series of narrow white spots; it 
extends about an inch beyond the wings: it is greyish white 
beneath, the bars shewing through; under tail coverts, white. 
Legs, short, and, as the toes, yellow, feathered with very soft 
greyish or whitish yellow hairy feathers, slightly spotted with 
brown. Claws, slender, yellowish brown, and dusky at the tips. 
