American Screech Owls 527 



of the species, at least in North America, are dichromatic in some part of their 

 range, there being a bright rufous phase which is quite different from the "nor- 

 mal" grayish plumage. This mixing of plumage makes it very difficult to prop- 

 erly differentiate the various forms, and there are decided differences of opinion 

 regarding their limitations. They are mainly nocturnal in their habits, although 

 occasionally seen abroad during the day, and they frequent wooded districts as 

 well as groves and gardens. 



American Screech Owls. Of the eighty or more forms recognized about 

 twenty are confined to the New World and the remainder to the Old World, the 

 two groups being very distinct. The most important North American species 

 is the common Screech Owl (M. asio), which in a number of well-marked geo- 

 graphical races is spread over practically the entire continent except at the far 

 North. The forms inhabiting the eastern United States exhibit in a marked 

 degree the dichromatism or gray and rufous phases already mentioned, which 

 have no relation to sex, age, or season, while the western races are monochromatic, 

 the plumage presenting in all individuals essentially the same character and 

 corresponding to the grayish phase of the eastern races. In the typical form 

 (M. asio}, which ranges over the eastern United States and British provinces 

 west to the edge of the Great Plains, the normal plumage is generally brownish 

 gray above, streaked with black and finely mottled with ochraceous buff, and 

 white, finely streaked and barred with black and rufous on a white ground below. 

 In the rufous phase the upper parts are bright rufous finely streaked with black, 

 while the lower parts are white with the feathers centrally streaked with black 

 and barred with rufous. The length is between eight and ten inches, the female, 

 as usual among Owls, being the larger. It is not uncommon to find young birds 

 of both phases in the same nest, even when the parents are of the same color, 

 and there is a tendency for one or the other phase to predominate in certain 

 localities; in the Mississippi Valley, for instance, the rufous plumage appears to 

 prevail, while near the Atlantic coast the reverse seems to be the case. 



The Screech Owl, or as it is sometimes called according to the plumage, the 

 Red or Gray Owl, is strictly nocturnal in its habits, frequenting open wooded 

 districts, old apple orchards, or outbuildings, and spending the daytime in a hollow 

 tree, a dense thicket, or a dark corner of a barn. It is rarely seen during the 

 daytime, unless its retreat is discovered by some prying Blue Jay or other small 

 bird, when it is mobbed unmercifully, and although it maybe relatively abundant, 

 its presence, from its retiring disposition, is often unsuspected. But, says 

 Chapman, "how differently they appear when the western sky fades and their 

 day begins ! With ear-tufts erected and his great, round eyes opened to the 

 utmost, he is the picture of alertness." Their weird, melancholy call, which has 

 given rise to not a little superstition and dread among ignorant people, is 

 a tremulous, wailing whistle or doleful moan; it is often heard in the early 

 evening about dwellings. Their food consists very largely of mice and other 

 small rodents, as well as insects and an occasional small bird or frog; rarely, 

 and only when pushed by the extreme pangs of hunger, are they known to attack 

 poultry. Of the 255 stomachs examined by Dr. Fisher, only one contained 



