THE GREAT GRAY OWL. 379 



Concerning the notes of this Owl much has been written. It is credited 

 with a varied assortment of hoots, besides much demoniacal laughter, and 

 occasional blood-curdling screeches. In comparing former accounts, and 

 those written in comparatively unsettled sections of the country, with the 

 bird's present habits and its known abundance, I am strongly inclined to the 

 opinion that the birds have undergone recently an important change in this 

 respect ; that in fact, because of the increasing danger attendant upon the pro- 

 cess, they have largely left off hooting and screeching. Negative evidence 

 in this matter must be attentively considered, and such I believe we possess. 

 The ordinary challenge notes, delivered in a deep bass voice, consist of the 

 theme, zvho-whoo, variously modified. Who-whoo, who-ivhoo-ivho , is a com- 

 mon form and one which may readily be imitated by blowing into the hands 

 held conch-shaped. 



Barred Owls mate in February and nest either during the last week of 

 that month or early in March. Usually some hollow tree in the depths of 

 the wood is utilized, but not infrequently, deserted nests of Hawks and Crows 

 are pressed into service. In either case no additional lining is supplied. Occa- 

 sionally the birds build a nest, and a site in some dense thicket of saplings 

 or evergreens is then chosen. A nest placed thirty feet high in one of a cluster 

 of hemlocks, on the side of the Chance Creek gorge, in Lorain County, we 

 had every reason to suppose was built by the owner. 



The female attends chiefly to the duties of incubation, while soon after 

 the young are able to leave the nest the male takes himself off to some hollow 

 tree, there to gloom in sullen solitude for another year. 



No. 166. 



GREAT GRAY OWL. 



A. O. U. No. 370. Scotiaptex nebulosa (Foster). 



Description. Adult : No ear-tufts ; general plumage mottled, dusky, gray- 

 ish brown, and dull whitish, darker above, lighter below, where the dusky markings 

 are indistinctly longitudinal on breast and belly, and transverse on flanks, the 

 whitish impure and with a fulvous element on the margin of the facial disk, hind 

 neck, wings, tail, etc.; wing-quills and tail indistinctly barred; facial disk about 

 six inches across, dusky gray, with numerous dusky lines imperfectly concentric 

 about each eye ; the edge of the disk dark brown and fulvous, and with more white 

 below ; the eyes bordered by black on the inner margin ; iris yellow ; bill pale yel- 

 low; feet and toes heavily feathered. Length 25.00-30.00 (635. -762.) ; wing 16.00- 

 18.00 (406.4-457.2); tail 11.00-12.50 (279.4-317.5); bill with cere 1.40 (35.6). 



