210 NOTES ON THE 
SYRNIUM NEBULOSUM (Forster.) (3868. ) 
BARRED OWL. 
Next to the Great Horned Owl, the Barred Owl is the most 
numerous of any species of its family in Minnesota. Yet they 
are less so here than in Illinois, or than formerly so there. They 
are slightly (I think considerably) migratory in the southern 
portions of the State, moving southward somewhat in severe 
winters, but in the pine regions they are not so, for I have 
obtained specimens from time to time from lumber camps 
during the hardest winters we have ever experienced. During 
the summer season many of them get distributed over the 
entire prairie regions, when they are even more easily obtained 
there than in the densest timber regions. I have found them 
in the vicinity of Duluth with little difficulty and hunters 
report them frequently met with in duck hunting, particularly 
in spring shooting. Several nests have been discovered 
within the vicinity of Princeton and two or three near the 
north arm of Lake Minnetonka. They breed as early as any 
other species, if Bubo virginianus is excepted, the eggs having 
been once brought to me fresh on March tenth. They are 
pure white, subspherical in form and from four to five in 
number. The structure of the nest is quite bulky and is gen- 
erally located in a fork of a tree fifty or sixty feet from the 
ground. It consists of sticks and leaves principally. 
The food of the Barred Owls consists chiefly of field mice, 
reptiles and small birds. At the dawn of morning and again 
at evening, ‘‘twilights mystic hour,” it may often be seen 
floating silently along the border of the woods or over the 
meadows in quest of its humble game, so near the grass or 
grain that the wings seem to rest upon it. It cannot be re- 
garded as especially a woodland bird, for they are quite as 
frequently met with far out on the prairies where not even a 
bush can be seen for many weary miles. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Head large, without ear tufts; tail rather long; upper parts 
light ashy-brown, frequently tinged with dull yellow with 
transverse narrow bands of white most numerous on the head. 
and neck behind, broader on the back; breast with transverse 
bands of brown and white; abdomen ashy-white, with longi- 
tudinal stripes of brown; tarsi and toes ashy-white, tinged 
with fulvous, generally without spots but frequently mottled 
with dark brown; quills brown with six or seven transverse 
