Jan., 1909. Birds of Illinois and Wisconsin — Cory. 



485 



Barn Owl. 



parts ranging in different specimens from pure white to buff, marked 

 with scattered spots of brown; facial disks varying from white to 

 tawny and bordered with buff, or in some cases dark brown ; a brown 

 spot in front of the eye; primaries, tawny, shading to white on the 

 inner webs and banded with dark brown; tail, varying from white to 

 tawny, usually mottled and banded with brown; iris, black. 



Length, 15 to 20; wing. 12.25 ^^ 13.75; bill, .95; tarsus, about 

 2.60. 



The Barn Owl is of casual occurrence in northern Illinois and has 

 been taken several times in Wisconsin. It probably breeds regularly 

 in southern Illinois. There are a number of records of its having been 

 taken in the state, among which is that of an adult male killed in 

 Jackson Park, Chicago, August 15, 1896. The specimen is now in 

 the collection of the Field Museum of Xatural History. Mr. Charles 

 W. Douglass of Waukegan, 111., has a mounted specimen in his col- 

 lection, taken near that city. 



Although rather rare in Wisconsin, according to Kumlien and 

 Hollister, specimens have been taken near Racine (Hoy) and in Jef- 

 ferson County, Janesville, La Crosse, and Ripon. "The only authentic 

 breeding record we have for the state (Wisconsin) is furnished us 

 by Mr. H. H. T. Jackson of Milton, who saw in Green County, in 

 April. 1899, a live female with three eggs, which had been taken 

 from a hollow burr oak tree." (Birds of Wisconsin, 1903, p. 68.) 



