328 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The average measurement of twenty-seven specimens in the U. S. National 

 Museum collection is 42.5 by 32.5 millimetres, the largest egg measuring 47.5 

 by 33.5, the. smallest 40.5 by 27.5 millimetres. 



The type specimen, No. 20627 (PI. 12, Fig. 1), selected from a set of five 

 from the Bendire collection, was taken April 4, 1876, near Santa Cruz, Cali- 

 fornia. 



Family BUBONID^E. HORNED OWLS, ETC. 

 112. Asio wilsonianus (LESSON). 



AMERICAN LONG-EARED OWL. 



Otus wilsonianus LESSON, Traits d'Ornithologie, 1831, 110. 

 Asio wilsonianus COUES, Check List, ed. 2, 1882, 81, No. 472. 



(B 51, C 320, R 395, C 472, U 360.) 



GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE: Whole of temperate North America; south to the table- 

 lands of Mexico. 



The breeding range of the American Long-eared Owl covers the United 

 States in general, but it is perhaps less abundant in the South Atlantic and Gulf 

 States than in the central, northern, and western portions. It likewise breeds 

 north of our border from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and southern Canada, 

 west to the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where it is reported as 

 common in the woods skirting the Saskatchewan plains. Here it reaches lat- 

 itude 54 N., and probably still farther north. On the Pacific coast it is met 

 with from Lower California and Arizona, north through California, Oregon, and 

 Washington, and extending well into British Columbia. It is equally common 

 throughout the Rocky Mountain region. 



From the nocturnal habits of the Long-eared Owl it might be entirely over- 

 looked for years by the average observer, even in localities where it is fairly 

 common; whereas another, thoroughly familiar with its haunts, would have 110 

 difficulty in detecting its presence at any time. Except during the mating 

 season it is rather a sile'nt bird, and the few notes which I have heard them 

 utter, when at ease and not molested, are low toned and rather pleasing than 

 otherwise. One of these is a soft toned "wu-hunk, wu-hunk," slowly and 

 several times repeated, which really sounds much better than it looks in print; 

 another is a low twittering, whistling note like "dicky, dicky, dicky," quite dif- 

 ferent from anything usually expected from or attributed to the Owl family. In 

 the early spring they hoot somewhat like a Screech Owl, and may be often 

 heard on a still evening, but their notes are more subdued than those of the latter. 



Mr. J. W. Preston, of Baxter, Iowa, writes me that one of their notes resem- 

 bles the "me-ow-ow-ow-ow" of a cat. Another is a subdued "hoo-hoo" or 

 "oo-oo," often uttered for hours during the mating time. At a distance this 

 sounds something like the lowing of a cow. He further states: "At the nest, 

 when disturbed, the female ruffles her feathers, flies to the ground, curves 



