FAMILY Bubonidz. 
infrequently that of a gray squirrel. Egg, white. This 
Owl is resident throughout its range, which extends | 
from Labrador southward through eastern North Amer- 
ica. His preferred home is the forest. 
Certainly this ‘‘ tiger ” bird can not be included among 
the song birds, but as certainly we can not throw out 
his hoot from musical calculation. Mr. Cheney writes: 
<‘One winter, after six weeks of cold, perhaps the sever- 
est in fifteen years, the weather moderated, and the 3d 
of March was a comparatively mild day. An Owl felt 
the change, and in his gladness sent down ponderous 
vesper notes from the mountain, which, as they came 
booming across the valley, bore joy to all that heard 
them. . . . The Owl did not change the weather, 
the weather changed the Owl.” So much for sentiment 
in the hoot of an Owl! The usual syllables of the hoots 
are— Whoo, hoo-hoo, Whoo, hoo-hoo-hoo, and the effect 
is like that of a bass whistle belonging to a Sound 
steamer when it is heard at a distance, although the tone 
is not so deep. There is a drop of at least a fourth to the 
hoo-hoos hoo-hoo-hoo/s 
Whoo, Whoo, 
two shorter last syllables. Mr. Cheney’s record is almost 
identical with this; the difference is trifling, as he says: 
‘* The first of these tones was preceded by a grace note, 
the second was followed by a threadlike slide down a 
fourth, and at the close of the third was a similar descent 
of an octave. Neither slide, however, ended in. a firm 
tone.” This exactly describes the nature of the tones, 
and it is unnecessary to say more, except that few writers 
have given us any record of the scream of the creature. 
Fiena! 
When that note comes one will think he hears the 
*“crack o’ doom.” If the Screech Owl’s note is weird, 
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