THE NORTHERN SPOTTED OWL. 465 
post. ‘There is more flapping of wing than in the case of the Marsh Hawk, 
but the movement is absolutely noiseless, being hushed by the soft plumage 
of the axillaries and under wing-coverts. Now and then the bird, tiring 
of an exclusive swamp diet, goes poaching. ‘Taking up a station upon the 
ground, it silently awaits the appearance of some timid gopher, which the 
Burrowing Owl has overlooked. In securing its smaller victims, the Owl 
does not pounce and tarry, but snatches in mid-flight, falcon-fashion, and 
retires to some favorite perch to eat. 
Its food consists largely of meadow mice, gophers, and other rodents, 
supplemented by grasshoppers, crickets and beetles, with now and then a 
sinall bird. So great are its services to the rancher, and especially to the 
hay-maker, that the owner may well count it a piece of good fortune when 
a pair or a colony of them take up quarters in the alfalfa field. Better run 
the mower carefully around every nest than to suffer the ‘‘sage-rats’’ to 
continue their work of devastation. 
These birds are largely migrant, summering chiefly to northward, and 
wintering further south. While they do not appear to move en troupe, like 
Blackbirds, suitable stretches of grass or tules offer a common attraction to 
the migrants, pausing to recruit the commissariat, and as many as two or 
three score may occasionally be seen at once hawking over a single swamp. 
Many do, nevertheless, breed with us, especially on the East-side. They are 
usually seen in pairs at all seasons, even during migrations, and Bendire 
considers that they are mated for life. Housekeeping is of the humblest, 
home being a mere shake-down of grass somewhere upon the ground; and 
it is only when the nest is threatened that the birds can muster “a weak 
whistling sort of note.” 
No. 184. 
NORTHERN SPOTTED OWL. 
A. O. U. No. 369a. Strix occidentale caurina (Merriam). 
Synonyms.—Merritam’s Ow. Hoor Owr. Woop Ow 1. 
Description.—4dult: No ear-turts; above rich umber-brown, round-spotted 
in transverse rows (the remains of interrupted bars) of pale tawny or white, 
spotting least on head and back, pattern on wings and tail larger, but distal paired 
spots on primaries obsolescent; underparts heavily barred brown and whitish; 
wing-linings heavily spotted with dusky on a tawny ground; facial disk gray, with 
indistinct, dusky, concentric circles about each eye; bill yellow; iris yellow or 
brown. Length: 20.00 (508) or more; wing 12.75 (323.9) ; tail 8.44 (214.4) ; bill 
from cere .92 (23.4). 
