342 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



the other dimensions in proportion. The plumicorns are about two inches long, and 

 the genus is peculiar to tropical America. 



A fair representative of the remaining species is the common mottled-owl or screech- 

 owl, Scops asio, so generally distributed through the United States, where it is one of 

 the commonest of the smaller species, and, except along our southern border, the only 

 small owl which has plumicorns. It shows in its perfection the dimorphism which is 

 so common in this genus as well as in Glaucidium and several others, but its habits 

 appear to be about the same everywhere. 



It is strictly nocturnal, or crepuscular, feeds mostly on mice and similar vermin, 

 and almost invariably nests in the hollows of trees, where it lays five or six eggs in 

 April or May in the Middle and New England states. While its food is doubtless 

 mainly as mentioned above, yet it eats many insects, probably catches small birds oc- 

 casionally, and would seem to be fond of fish from the following account by Mr. A. 

 M. Frazar, of Watertown, Mass. Mr. Frazar says : " On November 29, 1876, I took 

 from a mottled owl's hole the hinder half of a woodcock, Philohela minor. Within 

 two weeks after I took two owls from the same hole, and on the 19th of January last 

 I had the good fortune to take another. After extracting the owl I put in my hand 

 to see what else there was of interest, and found sixteen horned-pouts, Amiurus atra- 

 riiis, four of which were alive. When it occurred to me that all the ponds in the 

 vicinity were under at least two feet of snow and ice, I could scarcely conjecture 

 where the horned-pouts could have been captured. After visiting all the ponds, I 

 found they had most probably been captured in one fully a mile away, where some 

 boys had been cutting holes through the ice to catch pickerel bait. The owl probably 

 stationed himself by the edge of the hole and seized the fish as they came to the sur- 

 face. What a busy time he must have had flying thirty-two miles after sixteen 

 horned-pouts ! " 



The ordinary cry of the mottled-owl is a tremulous and not unmusical series of 

 notes, and we have neA^er heard a note from this species which would at all justify the 

 common name of screech-ow'. 



A beautiful Mexican and Central American species is the flammulated-owl, Scops 

 flammeolus, which has been taken half a dozen times or more in California, Arizona, 

 and Colorado, and in the last-named state has been found breeding. This is one of 

 the smallest species of the genus, and readily distinguished from S. asio by its per- 

 fectly bare toes and very short plumicorns. 



The common species of Europe is the scops owl, Scops giu, which is slightly 



smaller than our common mottled-owl, and differs 

 further in its naked toes. In general appearance 

 and plumage, however, they are quite similar, 

 though specific characters for their separation are 

 easily found, and it has even been proposed to 

 place the American birds of this genus in a sep- 

 arate sub-genus, from that which should include 



FIG. 156. - Foot of scops gto. & ffiu. In habits all the species seem to be quite 



similar; essentially nocturnal, and rarely nest- 

 ing anywhere except in hollow trees or deserted woodpeckers' holes, though S. giu 

 has been known to lay its eggs in the deserted open nest of another bird, in a thick 

 evergreen tree. 



We now come to a group of three genera, in which the facial disk is very highly 



