170 KEPOKT OF NEW JEESEY STATE MUSEUM. 



The Barn Owls are "at home" in some spacious hollow tree, or in 

 some steeple or barn that offers an interior shelter and a hole for 

 entrance. Here the pair rest during the day, and start out at dusk to 

 scour the meadows for mice of all sorts, which constitute their food, 

 and often we find a supply of these rodents laid away in the nest hole. 

 The eggs are often laid at considerable intervals, and young of various 

 sizes may be found in the same nest. 



Family STRIGID-ffi. 



THE HORNED OWLS, ETC. 



Owls, like Hawks, are for the most part very beneficial as destroyers 

 of mice. Only one species, the Great Horned Owl, ever raids the 

 poultry yard. 



The Owls are nocturnal birds of prey resembling the Hawks in 

 many ways, but probably more intimately related to the Picarian 

 stock from which have come the Goatsuckers, Parrots, etc. They have 

 flat faces with large eyes directed forwards, the face surrounded by a 

 "ruff" and often with two ear-like tufts on the top of the head, that 

 of course have nothing to do with the ears, which are large openings 

 located just behind the eyes. 



a. Wing, 14.50-18. 



I. Wing, 14.50-16 ; plumage brown, mottled with buff, rusty and white. 



GREAT HORNED OWL, p. 174 

 66. Wing, 16-18; plumage gray, mottled with dusky. 



GREAT GRAY OWL, p. 173 



666. Wing, 17.30-18.70 ; plumage white, more or less barred with dusky. 



SNOWY OWL, p. 175 

 aa. Wing, 11.50-14. 



6. Breast barred, belly streaked with dusky. BARRED OWL, p. 172 



66. Breast streaked, belly barred with dusky. LONG-EARED OWL, p. 171 

 666. Entire under parts buff, streaked with dusky. 



SHORT-EARED OWL, p. 171 



aw. Wing, 9 ; tail long and pointed. HAWK OWL, p. 175 



aaaa. Wing, 5.25-7.10. 



6. Wing over 6, horned. SCREECH OWL, p. 174 



66. Wing under 6, not horned. SAW-WHET OWL, p. 173 



