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ACADlAxX OWL. 

 Nyctala acadica. 



DESCRIPTION. 



"Small; wings long; tail short; upper parts reddish-brown, 

 tinged with olive; head in front with fine lines of white, and on 

 the neck behind, rump and scapulars, with large, partially 

 concealed spots of white; face ashy-white; throat white; under 

 parts ashy-white, with longitudinal stripes of pale reddish- 

 brown; under coverts of wings and tail white; quills brown, 

 with small spots of white on their outer edges, ana large siiois 

 of the same on their inner webs; tail brown, every feather 

 with about three pairs of spots of white; bill and claws dark; 

 irides yellow. 



"Total length about l^o to 8 inches; extent about 18; wing 

 5%; tail 2% to 3 inches. Sexes nearly the same size and alike 

 in colors." — B. B. of N. A. 



Habitat. — North America at large; breeding from Middle 

 States northward. Resident in Pennsylvania. 



The Acadian is the smallest owl found in the United 

 States east of the Mississippi river. Although ap- 

 parently larger, it is in reality smaller, than our com 

 mon robin. This pigmy mass of owl-life is, I suppose, 

 the species which was regarded as not destructive to 

 poultry and game, by the author of the "scalp act," 

 when he introduced therein a clause exempting "The 

 Acadian Screech or Barn Owl." From the fact, how- 

 ever, that the decapitated heads of pheasants,* night- 

 hawks, chickens, cuckoos, shrikes, and doubtless other 

 birds, were cremated and paid for as the heads of de- 

 structive rapacious "hawks" it is but reasonable to sup- 



* In December, 1SS6. Prof. S. F. Baird informed me that he 

 had received for identification from several counties in Penn- 

 .sylvania. the heads of pheasants, English sparrows, cuckoos, 

 robins, a gull and other l)irds. These heads were called by the 

 parties sending them tn Prof. Baird "Hawk heads." and as 

 such they had been presented for the fifty-cent liDunty, which 

 had b(^en i)aid. IMof. Raird also examined some Pennsyhania 

 "wolf scalps." on which [iremiums had been given, and ascer- 

 tained that the so-called "wolf scalps" had heen fashioned from 

 pelts of the common Red Fox. 



