348 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



i 



They certainly appear very different, but when we find that they are, perhaps, the 

 two most different individuals which we could have selected, and that between them 

 we can place forms which shall connect them by almost every possible gradation of 

 color and size, we ought to feel less certain of their specific distinctness than we did 

 at first. It is to be borne in mind that among owls the sexes usually differ very much 

 in size, though they are not known to differ materially in plumage ; and it is also sig- 

 nificant that the species of Aluco still considered distinct f rom flammeus are mostly 

 but slightly known, and are comparatively rare in collections. Hence, in considering 

 the habits of the birds of this genus, we shall ignore the rarer members, and speak 

 simply of the barn-owl, meaning thereby A. flammeus, or any of its races. And first 

 we might remark that the more appropriate name for this bird is the screech-owl, for 

 certainly, of all the owls we have ever listened to, this one has the most typical and 

 unearthly screech. It may roost in a barn or a ruined castle in England, or lay its 

 eggs in the cathedral belfries of France and Italy, or the unused loft of a tobacco or 

 sugar warehouse in our own southern states ; the hollow stub beside a marsh may 

 cradle its young in Pennsylvania or Australia ; it may burrow in a sand or clay bank 

 in Texas, or breed in the chinks and fissures of cliffs in California, or in the open fork 

 of a banyan tree in the Philippine Islands ; but, disturb it by night near any of these 

 its chosen haunts, and its startling cry of dismay, derision, or defiance as it vanishes, 

 will always be a harsh and rasping screech. 



From the above remarks it will be seen that the nesting habits of this bird are 

 extremely various. Perhaps it may be said most often to nest in or about buildings, 

 and this seems to be its habit in most parts of the United States, though in many 

 sections it is known to nest in hollow trees, and in parts of Texas it breeds abundantly 

 in holes in the banks of rivers. Three seems to be the common number of eggs 

 hatched at once, but there is considerable evidence to show that other eggs are often 

 laid after the first are hatched, and there are many unsettled questions with regard to 

 the economy of the species. Its eggs have been found in the United States in almost 

 every month of the year, and it is not impossible that, as Audubon was assured in 

 Florida, these owls, like the house-pigeons, breed at all seasons of the year. In 

 Charleston, S. C., in October, Audubon found young several weeks old and kept 

 watch of them for several months, during which time they were fed by their parents 

 exclusively on small quadrupeds, mostly cotton rats. When he first saw the young 

 they were clothed with a rich, cream-colored down, and even when three months old 

 this had not all given place to true feathers. Although hatched early in October, 

 they were unable to fly by the middle of January, though apparently well fledged. 



In the eastern United States this bird is abundant only toward the south. In 

 New England it is very rare, and, though there is an unchallenged record of its 

 capture in Hamilton, Ontario, in May, 1882, it is not known ever to have occurred in 

 Maine, though on the Pacific coast it is abundant in California, and extends as far 

 north as the mouth of the Columbia. It is an interesting and valuable bird, unques- 

 tionably beneficial from the numbers of small rodents it destroys, and, like many other 

 of our owls, deserving of every protection and encouragement which will increase its 

 frequency in and about our homes. 



The only other member of this sub-family at present known is a newly discovered 

 Madagascan genus, the type of which has been recently described by Alphonse 

 Milne-Edwards under the name Heliodilus soumagnii. 



WALTER B. BARROWS. 



