NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 19<7 



367. Asio accipitrinus (PALL.) [396.] 



Short-eared Owl. 



Hab. Entire North America; nearly cosmopolitan. 



The Marsh Owl, or Short-eared Owl, is found throughout North 

 America at large, but is more abundant in the Arctic regions during 

 the breeding season than it is in the United States. It frequents the 

 marshes, the thickets of bottom lands, and it seems to be particularly 

 common in the tall weeds and grass of fields and meadows. In the 

 West it is found on the vast prairies, along sloughs, hiding in the day- 

 time among the sage bushes and tall grass. This Owl is the species 

 commonly shot by sportsmen, as it rises from a field, marsh or thicket. 

 It is nocturnal, but often hunts its food on dark days ; this consists of 

 field mice, moles, shrews and other small rodents. The nest is made 

 on the ground in the matted grass of marsh land ; it may be found in 

 a depression, at the foot of a bush, beside a log, or in a burrow made 

 by a rabbit or a muskrat ; a few sticks, soft grasses and a few of its 

 own feathers usually comprise the nest proper ; sometimes the eggs 

 are laid on the bare ground. The complement of eggs ranges from 

 four to seven. In Ohio they are deposited in the month of April, 

 sometimes as early as the latter part of March, or as late as the middle 

 of May. Within these dates it doubtless may be found breeding 

 throughout the United States. A set of six eggs in my cabinet, with 

 the parent bird, collected by A. Corwin, in Morrow county, Ohio, May 

 8, 1884, measure 1.60x1.20, 1.56x1.19, 1.50x1.21, 1.52x1.20, i.64x 

 1.18, 1.56x1.22. They are white and oval in shape. The nest 

 was on the ground, between logs, at the edge of a blackberry patch. 

 The average size of the eggs is 1.55x1.25. 



368. Syrnium nebulosum (FORST.) [397.] 



Barred Owl. 



Hab. Eastern United States, north to southern British Provinces; south to Georgia and Northern 

 Texas. 



Called the American Hoot Owl or Wood Owl, and Round-headed 

 Owl. A large dark-eyed species, common to wooded lands of Eastern 

 United States, especially bottom woods ; those of swamps, along 

 ravines and rivers where there is a heavy growth of tall timber. The 

 loud, laughing notes of this Owl, heard in the night, are something 

 terrible, and if heard about the farm-house or camp-fire will not soon 

 be forgotten. Its flight is soft, as if on wings of down, noiseless, 

 quick and easy. Nests in hollows of trees, in old nests of hawks and 

 crows. In Ohio it is said to breed as early as the last of February, but 

 I have always found it nesting in April and the first half of May. 

 In New London county, Connecticut, Mr. C. L. Rawson has taken eggs 



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