110 OWLS, 
length, and its sides and belly are barred, not streaked, 
with blackish. It does not frequent marshes, but lives in 
swampy thickets or dense woods, and 
Long-eared Owl, makes its nest in the abandoned home 
Asio wilsonianus. i: 
of a Crow, Hawk, or squirrel. Itisa 
permanent resident from at least Massachusetts south- 
ward. 
Of our four “horned” Owls, the Long-eared has rela- 
tively the largest and most conspicuous “ ear-tufts,” the 
Short-eared the smallest, while in the Great Horned Owl 
and Screech Owl the ears are of about the same propor- 
tionate size. The Great Horned Owl, however, is found 
only in the wilder, more heavily wooded parts of the coun- 
try, and is hardly to be included ina list of our common 
birds. It is the largest of our resident Owls, the males 
measuring twenty-two inches in length, while its “ ear- 
tufts” are nearly two inches long. 
The Screech Owl is doubtless the commonest of our 
Owls, as it is also the most familiar, nesting about and 
Sersech Owl, even in our houses when some favor- 
Megascops asio. able hole offers. It has little to say for 
Finer ae, itself until its family of four to six 
fuzzy Owlets is safely launched into the world; then, in 
July or August, we may hear its melancholy voice—not 
a “screech,” but a tremulous, wailing whistle. It has 
several other notes difficult to describe, and when alarmed 
‘ defiantly snaps its bill. 
Some Screech Owls are gray, others bright reddish 
brown, and these extremes are connected by specimens 
intermediate in color. This difference in color is not due 
to age, sex, or season, and is termed dichromatism, or 
the presence in the same species of two phases of color. 
The same phenomenon is shown by other birds, notably 
certain Herons, and among mammals by the gray squir- 
rel, some individuals of which are black. The observa- 
