FAMILY Strigidee. 



Barred or One of our commonest Owls, resident 



"| throughout the year except at the most 



L. 21.75 Inches northerly limit of its range, which is Hudson 

 All the year Bay and Newfoundland; thence it extends 

 south to Kansas and Georgia. Like the Snowy Owl, it is 

 round-headed without ear-tufts. Its colors are a general 

 grayish brown, each feather with buffy white bars on the 

 sides, its face has well-defined grayish disks surrounding 

 dark brown eyes with black pupils, tail with six to eight 

 buffy bars, under parts dull white, barred on the breast, 

 and broadly streaked with sepia brown on the sides and 

 belly. Nest in a hollow tree; sometimes it is a remodeled 

 old one of a crow or large Hawk. Egg white, nearly two 

 inches long; from two to four are laid. "In New York," 

 Mr. Eaton writes, "it is undoubtedly the commonest Owl 

 in the Adirondacks, and is still common in all the more 

 wooded districts of the State." It is also one of the most 

 familiar Owls of the White Mountain district at all times 

 of the year, particularly in the autumn. 



The notes of this Owl are as melodramatic as one can 

 possibly imagine, deep-toned, and sentimentally expressive 

 of misery yet that is the human point of view! Possibly 

 with his Whoo-whoo-whoo, Wh-whoo, to-whoo-ah which 

 has given the bird the name "Eight hooter" among the 

 Adirondack Woods guides he addresses his mate in terms 

 of endearment, but it does not sound that way! The 

 tones are mostly in E, or not far away from it, close to 

 the middle C of the piano, and they should appear on 

 the musical staff, thus: 



I 



u- 



i 



^yVhoo, whoo, whoo, wh-whoo to~ 

 *f 



The next to the last syllable descends the scale indefinitely 

 to ah and is entirely different in quality of tone from the 

 whoos it is a sheeplike blatt. There is unending variety to 

 the uncanny, mirthless performance of two or three Hoot 

 Owls, the sounds mostly suggesting demoniacal and 

 derisive laughter. Some authors also attribute to this 

 270 



