a 
74 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
ease on the backs of chairs, or on other pieces of furniture ; 
seldom miscalculating the distance or missing a footing, as 
many of the other owls would in the same circumstances. 
This bird soon became tame, and would accept food at almost 
any time in the day or night: on receiving a piece of meat, 
he sometimes attempted to clutch it with his foot, and my 
fingers often had narrow escapes from his sharp, crooked 
talons. Usually, he would seize it with his mouth, and, if 
not too large, swallow it without tearing: if the piece was 
more bulky than he could manage, he stood on it, and tore 
it with his beak. Fish he invariably rejected, but greedily 
ate mice and small birds: a dead pigeon, that I put in his 
cage, was untouched for several days. He died in conse- 
quence of a hurt he received in flying against a window. 
The Barred Owl subsists principally upon small birds, 
field-mice, and reptiles. He is frequently seen, in early 
twilight, flying over the low meadow-lands, searching for the 
mice that dwell there: he usually takes a direct course, and 
sometimes flies so low that the tips of his wings seem to 
touch the grass. When he discovers his prey, he drops on 
it instantly, folding his wings and protruding his feet, in 
which his quarry is always secured: he often captures frogs 
that are sitting on the shores of ponds and rivers; but I am 
inclined to think that the statement, quoted by Audubon, 
that he often ‘catches fish, is incorrect. The Barred Owl 
usually nests in high trees, placing the structure of sticks 
and leaves in a crotch near the trunk. The eggs are usually 
three in number. I have one only in my collection: this is 
pure-white, almost globular, and, except in shape, hardly 
distinguishable from the egg of the domestic hen. It is 
2 inches in length by 1.68 in breadth. 
NYCTALE, Breum. 
Nyctale, Brenm, Isis (1828), 1271. 
Size small; head with very small ear-tufts, only observable when erected; eyes 
small; bill moderate, or not very strong; facial disc nearly perfect; wings rather 
long; tail short; legs and toes densely feathered. 
