81'J JfKi'OUT OF Sl'ATK (iEUJ.OUlSI'. 



(wo kinds of Scroccli Owls, one red, (lie other gray. The i'aet is, the 

 folor is iiuk^pendent of a,iie, sex or season. This double-color phase is 

 ciillod (lii'liromatisin. 



In I Juliana, in the Wabash \ alley, Uo per cent, of the Screech Owls 

 lunc l»i'en found lo be red (Ridgway). From the Miami Valley of Ohio 

 and the W'hiti'water in Indiana about (50 per cent, were found to be 

 red (Langdon, Jour. Cin. Soc. N. H., April, 1883, pp. 52-3). In the 

 \vin(er of 1886-7, in Franklin Countj', Indiana, red Screech Owls were 

 abnndaid ajid gray ones exceedingly rare. Up to 1882 almost all 

 seen wci'o gray, and prior to 188(5 red Screech Owls were rare. At 

 Tcne Haute ami at Bloomington, Carroll County, red is the prevailing 

 [ihase. liut it had not always been so. Prof. B. W. Evermann in 1890 

 said: "In 1877-"7y we got a good many Screech Owls at Camden, per- 

 haps twenty all told, and I think there were only four or five red ones. 

 Since 1885 1 have seen four or five at Burlington, all red. In 

 Wabash County both the red and gray phases are abundant. Since 

 188(5. at 'IVrre Haute, I have seen perhaps fifteen or twenty, and only 

 ihice or lour of tliem were gray. In 1801 Miss Bessie 0. Cushing 

 (UMdgely) secured three ivd Streech ()wls at Peru." In Lake Coimty, 

 in 188(5, .Mr. L. T. Meyer said the gray form predominated. Mr. E. M. 

 liasbi-ouk has given us the result of his studies of this problem (Amer- 

 ican Naturalist. A'ol. XXXIl, p. 521, etc., 1893), from which I nuike a 

 lew notes: 



Tlu've are jilaces where only tlu^ gray is known. There is at least 

 one iijace. from the neighborhood of the mouth of the Ohio Eiver 

 southward to Louisiana, where only the red form prevails, while be- 

 twt'i'u the two areas are found both red and gray. The State of In- 

 diana is in this belt, ami the greater part of it is in that portion where 

 ilie vcd form predominates. All records show that the offspring of a 

 [tair of gray birds are invariably gray. On the contrarj', the young of 

 a pair of red birds, or a pair of which one is of each color, red and 

 gray, may be pai-t of one color and pai't of the otlier. 



To the mind of the author all this presents a nice little study in 

 evolution, in which lie has discovered humidity, temperature, acquired 

 c-haracters and forest area are important factors. Mr. Ridgway had 

 previously suggested humidity as one cause. (Proc, TT. S. Nat. Mus., 

 1878, p. 108). 



Mr. John "Wright, a relative, living in Bartholomew County, told 

 me in the summer of 1897 of some Owls that lived in or near a bridge 

 in thai county that attacked a number of persons who attempted to 

 eross the bridge after night. They liad attacked him. They were 

 small (hvls. lie said, and he thought they were this species. 



