OWLS. 341 



an old nest of a like nature. Their eggs are 3-6, subspheri- 

 cal, white or whitish, and usually without a very smooth shell. 

 Their peculiar notes, or hootings, are elsewhere noticed. 



I. STRIX. 



A. PRATINCOLA. (American) Barn Owl. This bird 

 has not recently occurred in Massachusetts more than once 

 or twice.* 



a. " Tawny, or fulvous brown, delicately clouded or marbled 

 with ashy and white, and speckled with brownish black ; be- 

 low, a varying shade from nearly pure white to fulvous, with 

 sparse sharp blackish speckling ; face, white to purplish brown, 

 darker or black about the eyes, the disk bordered with dark 

 brown ; wings and tail barred with brown, and finely mottled 

 like the back ; bill, whitish ; toes, yellowish. ... <j> , 17 

 long ; wing, 13 ; tail, 5 J ; $ , rather less. U. S., Atlantic to 

 Pacific, southerly ; rare in the interior, rarely N. to New Eng- 

 land." (Coues.) 



b. " It is not uncommon in the vicinity of Washington ; 

 and after the partial destruction of the Smithsonian building 

 by fire, for one or two years a pair nested on the top of the 

 tower." f "Its nests have been found in hollow trees near 

 marshy meadows " (Brewer), and, in certain parts of the 

 country, the Barn Owls make burrows. The eggs average 

 1.70 X 1.30 of an inch, and are bluish or dirty (yellowish) 

 white. 



c. The Barn Owls of America are much less well known 

 than those of Europe, and no longer occur in New England, 

 if, indeed, they ever existed there except as stragglers. Mr. 

 Allen, in his "Notes on Some of the Rarer Birds of 

 Massachusetts," records the capture of one in this State, near 

 Springfield, in May, and that of two others in Connecticut. 

 To the southward and westward the Barn Owls are common 

 in many places. Says Dr. Brewer : " The propensity of the 

 California bird to drink the sacred oil of the consecrated 



* A rare and perhaps only acciden- t Two pairs of Barn Owls nested in 

 tal straggler to southern New England, this tower in 1893. W. B. 

 W. B. 



