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THE LITTLE SCREECH OWL. 

 Stuix Asio, Linn. 



PLATE XCVII. Adult and Young. 



This Owl, although found in the Southern States, is there very 

 rare. During a long residence in Louisiana, I have not met with more 

 than two individuals. On advancing towards the confluence of the 

 Ohio and Mississippi, we find them becoming rather more numerous ; 

 above the Falls of the former, they increase in number ; and as the tra- 

 veller advances towards the sources of that noble river, their mournful 

 notes are heard in every quarter during mild and serene nights. In Vir- 

 ginia, Maryland, and all the Eastern Districts, the bird is plentiful, par- 

 ticularly during the autumnal and winter months, and is there well 

 known under the name of the Screech Owl. 



You are presented, kind reader, with three figures of this species, 

 the better to shew you the differences which exist between the young 

 and the full-grown bird. The contrast of colouring in these different 

 stages I have thought it necessary to exhibit, as the Red Owl of Wilson 

 and other naturahsts is merely the young of the bird called by the same 

 authors the Mottled Owl, and which, in fact, is the adult of the species 

 under consideration. The error committed by the author of the " Ame- 

 rican Ornithology," for many years misled all subsequent students of 

 nature ; and the specific identity of the two birds which he had described 

 as distinct under the above names, was first publicly maintained by my 

 friend Charles Lucian Bonaparte, although the fact was long before 

 known to many individuals with whom I am acquainted, as well as to 

 myself. 



The flight of the Mottled Owl is smooth, rapid, protracted and noise- 

 less. It rises at times above the top branches of the highest of our forest 

 trees, whilst in pursuit of large beetles, and at other times sails low and 

 swiftly over the fields, or through the woods, in search of small birds, 

 field-mice, moles or wood-rats, from which it chiefly derives its subsist- 

 ence. On alighting, which it does plumply, the Mottled Owl imme- 

 diately bends its body, turns its head to look behind it, performs a curious 

 nod, utters its notes, then shakes and plumes itself, and resumes its flight. 



