THE AMERICAN BARN OWL. 



(Slri.i- pratincola). 



LYNDS JONES. 



OUR barn owl belongs to the trop- 

 ical and warm temperate genus 

 Strix, which is scattered widely- 

 over the greater part of the 

 earth in the tropical and subtropical 

 parts of both hemispheres, and scatter- 

 ingly into the temperate zones. In 

 Europe one species is common as far 

 north as the British Isles, while our own 

 bird is found as far north as southern 

 New England in the East, Ontario, 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, and southern 

 Minnesota in the interior, and .Oregon 

 and Washington on the Pacific coast. 

 It is hardly common anywhere except 

 in the extreme southwestern part of 

 the United States, where it is the most 

 abundant owl in California. It is rare 

 or casual north of about the fortieth 

 parallel. But two specimens have been 

 brought to the Oberlin College Museum 

 in twenty years, one of which was 

 found dead in a barn a mile east of 

 Oberlin in December of 1898. 



The barn owl is the most nocturnal 

 of all our owls, although he can see 

 perfectly in the brightest day. Not 

 until twilight does he issue from his 

 secure hiding-place to do battle with 

 the farm and orchard pests. Then he 

 may be seen sailing noiselessly over 

 orchard and meadow in quest of any 

 mischievous rodent that may be men- 

 acing the farmer's prospects. He 

 seems to single out intelligently the 

 ones that do the most injury, destroy- 

 ing large numbers of pouched gophers 

 and other annoying and destructive 

 creatures, asking only in return to be 

 left in peace in his hiding-place. The 

 farmer certainly has no better friend 

 than this owl, for he destroys poultry 

 only when driven to it by the direst 

 necessity. In the East, his food con- 

 sists largely of rats and mice; in some 

 parts of the South the cotton rat is the 

 chief diet; while in the West he feeds 

 principally upon the gopher ( Thomomys 

 talpoidcs bulbivonis) and the California 

 ground squirrel ( Spcrmophilus gramtnu- 

 rus beccheyi), according to Prof. B. W, 



•Evermann. It seems pretty certain 

 that fish are sometimes captured and 

 eaten. 



This owl undoubtedly breeds, though 

 sparingly, in all suitable localities 

 wherever it is found, and probably 

 migrates more or less in the northern 

 part of its range. In Europe it nests 

 in old ruins, towers, and abutments of 

 bridges, but our American species 

 finds few such places, so he resorts to 

 hollow trees, caves, crevices in rocks, 

 and banks, and even to burrows in the 

 level ground, as we find to be the case 

 in parts of the West. The burrows are 

 undoubtedly the deserted burrows of 

 some other animal. In the eastern 

 parts of the country the owls frequently 

 nest in buildings. It is well known 

 that a pair occupied one of the towers 

 of the Smithsonian building in the city 

 of Washington in 1890, raising a brood 

 of seven young. It is stated that the 

 period of incubation is from three to 

 three and a half weeks, and that brood- 

 ing begins with the deposit of the first 

 ^ggl thus there may be fresh eggs and 

 young in the same nest. This accounts 

 for the long period of incubation. 



The eggs are pure white, usually 

 from four to seven in number, rarely 

 twelve. They are rather longer in pro- 

 portion than those of the other owls — 

 in about the proportion of 1.30x1.70. 

 But the average size is variously given 

 by the various authors. 



It seems a little curious that there 

 should be such a marked difference be- 

 tween the hawks and owls as regards 

 nest material. They belong to the 

 same order of birds, and yet the hawks 

 build their own nests, collecting the 

 material and arranging it much after 

 the fashion of higher birds, while the owls 

 make practically no nest, at the most 

 collecting a little material and scatter- 

 ing it about with little regard for ar- 

 rangement. But the difficulty disap- 

 pears when we realize that the owls 

 have probably always nested in hollows 

 which require no nest material, while 



155 



