398 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 92 



in the neighborhood, such fowls have suffered from its noc- 

 turnal depredations, until the shotgun has put an end to its 

 raids. 



No such harm could come from the three species of owls 

 forming- the illustrations to the present article, which I have 

 selected from a large collection of photographs of such sub- 

 jects, taken by me from life during- the past eight or ten years. 



Figure 1 is of the little Saw-whet owl {Crypto glaiix a. aca- 

 dica), a form with a body about the size of a robin. Figure 

 2 is a subadult Barred owl {Stri.v v. varia), the young of 

 which is shown in Figure 3. This medium sized species may 

 occasionally get away with smaller denizens of the poultry- 

 yard, including pullets and chicks ; but I do not believe it 

 happens nearly as frequently as many people believe or tell 

 about. Then, when we come to the common Screech owls 

 of the genus Otiis, the old and young of which are shown in 

 Figures 4 and 5, it is very questionable, in my mind, that 

 they can be considered at all in the light of habitual robbers 

 of the hen-roosts or the pigeon-cotes. There are many spe- 

 cies of this genus distributed all over the country, and they 

 prey principally upon small birds, rats, mice, other numerous 

 small rodents, and shrews. 



As a matter of fact, our various species of medium 

 sized owls are of vast importance to agriculturists every- 

 where throughout the country, for they destroy millions of 

 mice, rats, weasels, and other mammals, which eat up, in the 

 course of a year, thousands of tons of grain and other farm 

 produce ; and were these animals not kept down by such birds 

 as the owls, they would, in some parts of the countr}^, eat the 

 farmer and agriculturist out of house and home, compelling 

 him to seek other employment for a livelihood. Indeed, it 

 would be an excellent thing to not only encourage such owls 

 as the Barn owl for example to breed and multiply in the 

 neighborhood of large farms, but also to introduce and pro- 

 tect the bird, in such localities as it does not normally occur. 



So much, then, in regard to the relation of owls to the 

 welfare of the agriculturist. We have next to do with the 



