262 BRACI1YOTUS PALUSTRJS. 



As remarked, the full hoot is often given by day during the breeding season and on one or 

 two occasions, I have heard it in winter in Maine, where the country people say that when 

 the Owls hoot before sunset, it foretells a storm, 



The Great Horned Owls are, with prehaps the exception of the Eagles, the very first 

 in the season among our native birds to breed, depositing their eggs in Florida as soon as 

 the first of January, but not laying in New England until the middle of February. The 

 young grow slowly and do not leave the nest for, at least, three months. These Owls, like 

 the Barred, almost invariably breed in hollow stubs in the South but further north, they 

 frequently construct nests for themselves or remodel those of Hawks or Crows but they oc- 

 casionally resort to holes in this section for I once found some eggs, all of which, excepting 

 one, were broken, in a cavity of a prostrate log at Upton, Maine. The stub which con- 

 tained the nest, must have been thrown down shortly after the eggs were deposited, for 

 the whole one, although addled, showed no signs of incubation. The Great Horned Owls, 

 like other species, wander considerably when not breeding, especially in the North during 

 winter, but they are not strictly migratory. 



FAMILY III. OTUNID^. THE EARED OWLS. 



Sternum, emarginate. Marginal indentations , four , not wide nor deep. Tarsus, very 

 short. Feet, small. Eyes, rather small. Facial disk, nearly perfect. Ear tufts, always 

 present. 



The sternum is short ami well arched, with the top of the keel considerably rounded. 

 The outer marginal indentations are deeper than the inner. The size is medium with the 

 form slender. The bill is strong but not very long. The plumage is long, full, and quite 

 downy. The wings and tail are long, and although the ear tufts are always present, they 

 are of varying length. 



GENUS I. BRACHYOTUS. THE EARED OWLS. 



GEN. On. The sternum is considerably arched, with a well rounded keel which emals in heiyhf one half the width of the 

 sternum. Outer marginal indentations, but little deeper than the inner. Coracoids, rather short, not equal in lenylh to the 

 top of the keel and not set on at a very imde anyle. 'Furcula, quite well developed. Tail and wingf, long. There are very 

 short ear tufts. 



Members of this genus have the ear tufts present hut they are not particularly prominent. The plumage, although 

 downy, is not strikingly long. The eyes are not large and are usually yellow in color. The sterno-trachealis w quite 

 stout, and there is a slender bronehialis, but no other laryngeal muscles. The ojsophagus is nearly straight, and opens 

 into a small proventriculus with simple glands arranged in a narrow, zonulnr band. The stomach Is not large, globular 

 inform, with very thin walls. The coeca are quite long with the blind ends dilated. The fold of the duodenum is long, in- 

 closing a small, but wide, pancreas. Both lobes of the liver are nearly equal in size. There is but one species within our 

 limits. 



BRACHYOTUS PALUSTRIS. 



Short-eared Owl. 

 Brachyotvs palustris GOULD., Pro. Zool. Soc., London; 1837, 10. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Sp. Cn. Form, slender. Size, medium. Sternum, stout. The marginal indentations are not deep. Tongae, rather 

 thick and fleshy, homy at the tip which is rounded and slighty bifid. Ear tufts, short. 



