The Roller-like Birds 



the deep evergreen recesses. Toward dusk their awakening was manifested 

 by the querulous cat-like cry; ten minutes later their silent forms appeared 

 outside the wood, and after a few rounds of preliminary gyrations it was dark 

 enough to commence operations in earnest." They are rather silent birds, 

 except possibly when young, the commonest note being a mewing cry, heard 

 when the birds begin to arouse themselves from the daytime sleep; occasionally 

 they emit a short, barking cry. The food consists principally of field mice and 

 rats, but it also preys on large insects, small birds, an occasional young hare or 



rabbit, and sometimes frogs. It nests in 

 wooded districts, usually taking possession of 

 the abandoned nest of a Crow, Magpie, or 

 Heron, or even a squirrel's dray, in which 

 it deposits from four to six nearly round, 

 smooth white eggs. 



American Long-eared Owl. Very closely 

 related, and indeed by some regarded as 

 only a geographic form 'or subspecies, is 

 the American Long-eared Owl (.4. wilson- 

 ianus), which differs mainly in being darker, 

 with the dusky of the upper parts in the 

 form of a confused mottling which is not 

 conspicuously contrasted with the paler 

 ground color. The lower parts incline to be 

 lighter, marked with irregular dusky bars 

 rather than broad stripes. This is a widely 

 distributed species, ranging over the whole 

 of temperate North America south to the 

 tablelands of Mexico, and ig strictly noc- 

 turnal in its habits, spending the day in 

 seclusion and coming forth only at dusk. 

 It is so very quiet in its ways that its 



presence is often unknown even where it is really quite abundant. Its 

 habits are very like those of its relatives across the water; for instance, it is 

 more or less gregarious, as Major Bendire speaks of seeing fifteen in a single 

 mesquite bush, and it appropriates an old nest of bird or mammal for its home. 

 Its food consists largely of mice, squirrels, gophers, and chipmunks, with an 

 occasional small bird or rabbit, and on the whole it is regarded as eminently 

 beneficial. 



Stygian Owl. Of the several other species of this genus which are remark- 

 able for the very long ear-tufts we may only mention the Stygian Owl (A. stygius}, 

 a bird of eastern tropical America, ranging north to eastern Mexico and Cuba. 

 It is about twenty inches long, dusky above with a sparse mottling of yellowish 

 white and grayish white below, coarsely barred and irregularly striped with 

 dusky. It is further distinguished by having the toes naked and the ends of 

 the longer wing-quills much narrowed. 



FIG. 160. 



- American Long-eared Owl, 

 Asia wilsonianus. 



