THE AMEEICAN BARN OWL. 325 



Family STRIGID^. Barn Owls. 

 III. Strix pratincola Bonaparte. 



AMERICAN BARN OWL. 



Strix pratincola Bonaparte, Geographical and Comparative List, 1838, 7. 

 (B 47, C 316, R 394, C 401, U 365.) 



Geographical range: United States generally (rarer northward) and Mexico. 



Tlie northern limit of the l^reeding range of the Barn Owl extends from 

 about latitude 40° 30' (Flushing, Long Island, New York) westward through 

 the Middle States, but going southward these birds become more and more 

 abundant, and north of latitude 41° it can only be considered as a rare 

 straggler, thou:gh it is probable that a pair may breed now and then in favor- 

 able localities at a somewhat higher latitude. It has been met with near 

 Hamilton, southern Ontario, Canada, at Sault St. Marie, Michigan, in Wis- 

 consin, and Minnesota. In the New England States it has been taken in Con- 

 necticut and Massachusetts. It is not uncommon in Kansas and portions 

 of southern Nebraska. On the Pacific coast it breeds from California south- 

 ward, and according to Dr. Cooper its range extends through Oregon to the 

 mouth of the Columbia River in latitude 46°. I have never met with it in 

 southeastern Oregon, soutliern Idaho, and northern Nevada, and if it occurs 

 at all in these regions it must be rare. 



The Barn Owl is one of tlie most useful and harmless birds of prey, sub- 

 sisting almost entirely on noxious vermin, such as ground squirrels, rats, pocket 

 gophers, mice, and on shrews, bats, frogs, small reptiles, grasshoppers, and 

 beetles. Very rarely small birds are caught by tliem, and occasionally a 

 young rabbit varies the usual bill of fare. Looked at from an economic stand- 

 point it would be difficult to point out a more useful bird than this Owl, and it 

 deserves the fullest protection, but, as is too often the case, man, who should 

 be its best friend, is generally the worst enemy it has to contend with, and is 

 ruthlessly destroyed by him partly on account of its odd appearance and finely 

 colored plumage, but oftener from the erroneous belief that it destroys the 

 farmer's poultry. 



It hunts during the evening and throughout the night, when its rather 

 peculiar screaming may be frequently heard. During the day it remains 

 hidden either in natural hollows in trees, cavities in the perpendicular bank of 

 some ravine or cliff, burrows in the ground, abandoned buildings, old mining 

 shafts, church steeples, barns, or similar retreats. In fact it does not object to 

 abide near human habitations and frequently nests in the very center of cities 

 of considerable size. Its flight, altliough accompanied by considerable flapping 

 of the wings, is entirely noiseless, and the capture of its humble prey is thus 

 greatly facilitated. The number of rats, mice, and other noxious vermin re- 



