no RAPTORES: Birds of Prey 



ALUCONID.E and STRIGID.E (Families Barn Owls, Horned 

 Owls, etc.) : Birds of Prey of large or small size; mostly nocturnal; 

 eyes very large; facial disc present; head mostly with ear-tufts 

 or " horns"; plumage soft and lax, and flight noiseless. 



BARN OWL 



(365. Tyto alba pratincola) 16 in. 



Male: Yellowish brown above, finely marked with gray, black, 

 and white; white below, peppered with dusky. 



Female: Darker, pale rusty below. 



Facial disc is at will drawn into a grotesque shape which the 

 imaginative liken to the face of a monkey; hence the bird is 

 widely known as " Monkey-face Owl." 



A deadly enemy of injurious small rodents. Its destructive- 

 ness in this direction is amazing. 



FAMILY HORNED OWLS, etc. 



LONG-EARED OWL 



(366. Asio wilsonianus) 15 in. 



Upper parts a mottled mixture of gray, black, and tawny; 

 whitish and buffy below, streaked and barred with black; ear- 

 tufts long, rising directly above eyes (not on " corners" of head, 

 as in the Screech Owl). These are held vertically and are dis- 

 tinctive. 



Utilizes abandoned large nests of other birds, or sometimes 

 that of a wood rat, in trees. 



SHORT-EARED OWL 



(367. Asio flammeus) 15 in. 



Upper parts a streaky mixture of light and dark brown ; below 

 buffy, brown-streaked; ear-tufts short, hardly noticeable. 



Often flies and hunts by daylight, sailing near the ground 

 after the manner of the Marsh Hawk. Rarely alights in trees. 



Remarkable as the most widely distributed of all Owls, occur- 

 ring over nearly the whole world, excepting Australia. 



