OTUS VULGARIS VAR. WILSONIANT'S. 305 



Otits wilsoiiiami«, Lkss., Tr. Orn. i, 1831, 110.— Cass., 111. 1854, 181.— Brew., N. A. 061. 



ls.-,7, (;-.— Bd., B. N. a. 185^, 53.— Hayji.. Rep. lH(i'j, 1.';?.— Cooi'. & Suck., N. 



H. Wush. Ter. 1800, 155.— Coi'es, Pr. Philn. Acatl. 181)0, 50 (Arizona).— Cour., B. 



CVil. i, 1870,426.— Snow, B. Kaiis. 187;j.— i!i[ei;i!.,II. S. Geol. Surv. Ter. 1872, 695. 

 Otas i-idgons, Jard., ed. Wils. ii,-J78.— AuD., Syn. 1839, '28 ; B. Am. i, 1840, 136, pi. 37.- 



■(4iR., B. L. I. 1844, 25. 

 OUis rnhiaris ameiicaum, SCHL., Mus. Pays-Bas, 18'J3, Oti, p. 2. 

 Otus indqurin var. wUsomanus, Alien, Bull. M. C. Z. iii, 1872, ISO.- CoUES, Key, 1H7-2, 



■204.— B. B. & R., N. A. B. iii, 1874, 18. 



Sah. — Europe, .fee. Var. wihoniuniis. Temperate North America, at large. 



Lift of f^pecimcns. 



Lieutenant Warren's Expedition.— 45'i6, 4538, White River ; 4537,.Fort Pierre. 

 Later Exjieditions. — 61760, Devil's Creek, IcKilio. 



I quote the principal synonyms of the Old World form, withont, however, additional 

 references. In the uncertainty at ijresent attending the determination of several 

 names of American forms, I only quote those of special pertinence here. 



This species is of not uncommon occurrence in the northwest, as in suitable places 

 elsewhere throughout temperate North America. 



"This species is quite coDnnon in Eastern Pennsylvania throughout 

 the year. It is more retiring- in its nature than Nyclale nvadica. The 

 latter prefers an orchard, in close proximity to man ; while the former, 

 according to the writer's experience, evinces by its actions a partiality 

 for deep forests of evergreens, where the hum and stir of busy farm-lite 

 is nearly unknown. The nests are usually constructed of rude sticks, 

 sometimes of boughs with the leaves adherent thereto, externally, and 

 generally, but not always, lined with the feathers of birds. The same 

 nest is made use of for several successive years. The female begins to 

 lay early in April, and sometimes produces two broods in a season. 

 The eggs are never more than four in number; sometimes as low as two 

 have been observed. It is stated, by both Audubon and Wilson, that 

 the nests of other birds, when of sufficient size, are generally used in 

 which to rear its young. Although it has not been my fortune to know 

 of such a case by personal experience, yet I cannot doubt the observa- 

 tions of these learned authorities. One of the best authenticated cases 

 is that related by Wilson, where one of these Owls bad taken possess- 

 ion, forcibly, as I am led to infer, of the nest of the Qua-bird (Night 

 Heron), and was actually setting. The common Crow occasionally 

 builds in similar situations ■ in this latitude, and there is a possibility 

 that its abandoned nests are sometimes appropriated, but this is mere 

 presumption. Within three quarters of a mile of Chestnut Hill (upper 

 part of Germantown), existed an immense forest of pines, within a com- 

 paratively recent period, which was the great place of rendezvous of 

 the Long-eaied Owl, during the dreary winter months, and where, in 

 the spring-time, the females deposited their eggs in rude and unsightly 

 nests of their own construction, The numbers that thronged this 

 thicket of pines was prodigious, so there were very few of the trees, if 

 any, that had not supported one or more nests. The many fragments 

 of the bones of mammals and birds, and the other remains of the same 

 that laid in piles upon the ground, bore testimony to the wholesale 

 destruction of life that was carried on. Within the last two years, during 

 which time many of the trees have yielded to the woodman's axe, the 

 number that visit the wood is small in comparison. The birds have 

 mostly gone to more congenial localities, and but a few remain of iill 

 that m'ighty host." — [Oentry.) 



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