BIRDS OF NEW YORK IO9 



•and subspecies of owls, distributed in all parts of the world, 80 of which 

 belong to the Otus or Screech owl genus. 



Family AUUCONIDAE 



Barn Owls 



These birds have a peculiar physiognomy which has given them the 

 name of Monkey owls. Facial disk heart-shaped or triangular instead of 

 rounded; the inner toe is as long as the middle toe; middle claw pectinate 

 on its inner edge; tarsus long, closely feathered, the feathers becoming 

 thin and bristly on the toes, and recurved on the rear part of tarsus; first 

 quill longer than third; none of the primaries sinuate or emarginate; no 

 bony canal in tarso-metatarsus for extensor of toes; sternum has a manu- 

 brium, and is entire on the rear margin; furculum ankylosed with sternum. 

 This family, which is related to the goatsuckers through Steatornis, is 

 represented by the single living genus Aluco of 26 species and subspecies, 

 distributed in all warm and temperate regions of the world. 



Aluco pratincola (Bonaparte) 

 Barn Owl 



Plate 53 



Strix pratincola Bonaparte. Geog. & Comp. List. 1838. 7 



DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 31, fig. 28 

 Aluco pratincola. A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1010. p. 168. No. 365 

 aluco, Lat., a kind of hooting owl; pratincola, Lat., inhabiting the meadow 



Description. Upper parts ocherous yellow, overwashed with grayish, 

 and speckled and marbled with dusky and white; wings and tail bar-spotted 

 with dusky; tinder parts vary from white to tawny, speckled with blackish; 

 face white to tawny; iris blackish. 



Length 15-18 inches; extent 44; wing 1 2.5-14; tail 5.5-7.5; tarsus 

 2.25-3. 



Distribution. The American Barn owl, which is closely related to 

 the European species f 1 a m m e a , inhabits the warmer portions of North 

 America from the northern limit of the upper Austral zone southward into 

 Mexico. The only New York breeding records before me are from Staten 

 Island, Long Island and the Genesee valley. It has been regarded as a 

 rare bird in this State but, as the accompanying records indicate, is well 

 distributed in the warmer portions of New York, and probably is more 



