BIRDS OF PREY. Owls 



Barred Owl : Syrnium nebulosum. 



PLATE IX. FIG. 2. 

 Length : 18-20 inches. 

 Male and Female : Eyes blue-black, instead of the usual yellow iris. 



No ear tufts. Plumage mottled dark brown, rusty, and grayish. 



Striped on breast with dark brown. Face feathers white tipped. 



Wings and tail barred with brown. Legs and dark feet fully 



feathered and faintly barred. Bill ivory-coloured. 

 Note : A loud, guttural call. " Koh ! Koh ! Ko, Ko, ho ! " or " Whah, 



whah, whah, whah-aa ! " (Nuttall.) 

 Season: Resident. 

 Breeds : Through range. 



Nest : In hollow tree or in crotch at some height from the ground. 

 Eggs : 4-6, laid in February, March, and April. 

 Hange : Eastern United States west to Minnesota and Texas, north 



to Nova Scotia and Quebec. 



The smooth-faced, twilight Owl of open woods, sheltered 

 farms, and waysides. Its hooting cry is hardly to be dis- 

 tinguished from that of the Great Horned Owl, but it has 

 several mocking and quavering notes peculiar to itself. 



Its eyes are unlike those of any of the other Owls of its 

 family and will always identify it ; their deep blue colour 

 gives it a very mild expression which is at variance with its 

 ferocity in pouncing upon game-birds and smaller Owls, 

 being in this respect, according to a recent government 

 report, 1 quite a cannibal. The same report says that, 

 though it does make inroads into poultry yards, the result 

 of careful inquiry proves that the greater portion of its 

 food consists of small mammals that are the bane of agri- 

 culture. 



It frequently lodges in barns and haylofts during the day, 

 and all about this region it is called the Barn Owl. And it 

 really is the Barn Owl of this locality, for the true Barn 

 Owl is practically unknown to the farming population ; and 

 when stuffed specimens are occasionally seen, having been 



i " The Hawks and Owls of the United States in their Relation to Agri- 

 culture," prepared under the direction of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Orni- 

 thologist, by A. K. Fisher, M.D., Washington, 1893. 

 p 209 



