THE GREAT GRAY OWL. 370 
Concerning the notes of this Owl much has been written. It is credited 
with a varied assortment of hoots, besides much demoniacal laughter, and 
cecasional blood-curdling sereeches. In comparing former accounts, and 
those written in comparatively unsettled sections of the country, with the 
bird’s present habits and its known abundance, I am strongly inclined to the 
opinion that the birds have undergone recently an important change in this 
respect ; that in fact, because of the increasing danger attendant upon the pro- 
cess, they have largely left off hooting and screeching. Negative evidence 
in this matter must be attentively considered, and such I believe we possess. 
The ordinary challenge notes, delivered in a deep bass voice, consist of the 
theme, zv/o-whoo, variously modified. IWVho-whoo, who-whoo-who, 1s a com- 
mon form and one which may readily be imitated by blowing into the hands 
held conch-shaped. 
Barred Owls mate in February and nest either during the last week of 
that month or early in March. Usually some hollow tree in the depths of 
the wood is utilized, but not infrequently, deserted nests of Hawks and Crows 
are pressed into service. In either case no additional lining 1s supplied. Occa- 
sionally the birds build a nest, and a site in some dense thicket of saplings 
or evergreens is then chosen. <A nest placed thirty feet high in one of a cluster 
of hemlocks, on the side of the Chance Creek gorge, in Lorain County, we 
had every reason to suppose was built by the owner. 
The female attends chiefly to the duties of incubation, while soon after 
the young are able to leave the nest the male takes himself off to some hollow 
tree, there to gloom in sullen solitude for another year. 
No. 166. 
CGREAISGRAY OWL. 
A. O. U. No. 370. Scotiaptex nebulosa (Foster). 
Description.—Adult: No ear-tufts; general plumage mottled, dusky, gray- 
ish brown, and dull whitish, darker above, lighter below, where the dusky markings 
are indistinctly longitudinal on breast and belly, and transverse on flanks, the 
whitish impure and with a fulvous element on the margin of the facial disk, hind 
neck, wings, tail, ete.; wing-quills and tail indistinctly barred; facial disk about 
six inches across, dusky gray, with numerous dusky lines imperfectly concentric 
about each eye; the edge of the disk dark brown and fulvous, and with more white 
below ; the eyes bordered by black on the inner margin; iris yellow; bill pale yel- 
low ; feet and toes heavily feathered. Length 25.00-30.00 (635.-762.) ; wing 16.00- 
18.00 (406.4-457.2) ; tail 11.00-12.50 (279.4-317.5); bill with cere 1.40 (35.6). 
