THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 33 



more like hair than feathers; head, back of the neck, sides 

 of the back, wings and central tail-feathers, black; stripe 

 above and below the eye, the lower extending up the side 

 of the neck, stripe down the middle of the back, side feathers 

 of the tail, under parts and round spots in rows across 

 the wings, white; the male having two bright red spots in 

 the white stripes on the back of the head. Habitat, all 

 eastern North America, reaching through Alaska, northwest; 

 replaced by a variety called Harris' Woodpecker, beyond 

 the Rocky Mountains. 



THE SHORT-EARED OWL. 



It is the dusk of twilight. How strong is the contrast 

 between the snow-clad earth and the leaden, almost inky, 

 sky! What bird is that flying low by the barn-yarn fence? 

 It has alighted. Quickly as possible I get my shot-gun and 

 creep around behind the barn. Meanwhile, a second has 

 alighted by the side of the first. Probably they are male 

 and female. I take aim, and over topples one of the birds, 

 while the other spreads its noiseless wings and flies away. 



On picking up my specimen I find it to be the Short-eared 

 Owl (Brachyotus palustris). Palustris means pertaining to 

 the swamp or marsh, and is very properly applied to this 

 species, as we shall presently see. From fourteen to fifteen 

 inches long, light reddish brown, lighter beneath, upper 

 parts thickly streaked with blackish-brown, lower parts 

 more finely streaked with the same, face whitish, with black 

 circles around the eyes, tail buff, legs a lighter shade of the 

 same color, ear-tufts scarcely noticeable, this bird is very 

 readily identified, for it is quite unlike any other Owl of this 

 locality. 



The Short-eared Owl breeds commonly in the salt-marshes 

 along the Atlantic and in marshy places in the interior, 

 3 



