LONG-EARED OWL 133 



towers of the Smithsonian, and also in the Jail towers,. 

 he makes his home and rears his young.'^ His food is 

 largely rats and mice, sometimes birds, all of which, if 

 small enough, he swallows whole, as is the custom of 

 Owls. 



The nest is composed of any convenient rubbish, 

 together with a few feathers. The eggs, 5 to 9, are 

 white, and somewhat pointed. 



American Long-eared Owl: Asia -d'Hsonianiis. 



Length 15 inches. 



Upper parts mottled, gray, tawny and blackish. 

 Under parts grayish-white indistinctly barred with brown. 

 black and tawny. 



Face bright bnff. bordered narrowly with black. 

 Long, conspicuous ear-tufts. Eyes yellow. 

 Resident (common) all the year. 



" The Long-eared Owl is one of our most beneficiai 

 species, destroying vast numbers of injuriou'^ rodents 

 and seldom touching insectivorous birds." (Fisher.) 

 This Owl never hunts during the day, but keeps 

 closely in thick evergreen ^'oods or swampy thickets. 

 It seldom builds a new nest, but remodels an old one 

 of a Crow or Hawk. Five eggs are usually laid. 



* The famous Owl colony in the Smithsonian towers has 

 been broken up (1902). 



