ACADIAN OWL. 

 Nyctala acadica. 



DESCRIPTION. 



"Small; wings long; tail short; upper parts reddish-brown, 

 tinged with olive; head in front with flne lines of white, and on 

 the neck behind, rump and scapulars, with large, partially 

 concealed spots of white; face ashy- white; throat white; under 

 parts ashy-wh;te, with longitudinal stripes of pale reddish- 

 brown; under coverts of wings and tail white; quills brown, 

 with small spots of white on their outer edges, ana large spots 

 of the same on their inner webs; tail brown, every feather 

 with about three pairs of spots of white; bill and claws dark; 

 irides yellow. 



"Total length about 7% to S inches; extent about 18; wing 

 514; tail 2% to 3 inches. Sexes nearly the same size and alike 

 in" colors."— B. B. of N. A. 



SCaMtal. — North America at large; breeding from Middle 

 States northward. Resident in Pennsylvania. 



The Acadian is the smallest owl found in the United 

 States east of the Mississippi river. Although ap- 

 parently larger, it is in reality smaller, than our com- 

 mon robin. This pigmy mass of owl-life is, I suppose, 

 the species which was regarded as not destructive to 

 poultry and game, by the author of the "scalp act," 

 when he introduced therein a clause exempting "Tlie 

 Acadian Screech or Barn Owl." From the fact, how- 

 ever, that the decapitated heads of pheasants,* night- 

 hawks, chickens, cuckoos, shrikes, and doubtless other 

 birds, were cremated and paid for as the heads of de- 

 structive rapacious "hawks" it is but reasonable to sup- 



- In December, 1SS6, Prof. S. F. Baird informed me that he 

 had received for identification from several counties in Penn- 

 sylvania, the heads of pheasants, English sparrows, cuckoos, 

 robins, a gull and other birds. These heads were called by the 

 parties sending them to Prof. Baird "Hawk heads," and as 

 such they had been presented for the fifty-cent bounty, which 

 had been paid. Prof. Raird also examined some Pennsylvania 

 "wolf scalps." on which premiums had been given, and ascer- 

 tained that the so-called "wolf scalps" had been fashioned from 

 pelts nf the common Red Fox. 



