Homed and Hoot Owls 



numbers may also be accounted for by the fact that during the 

 migrations it is sometimes found in flocks numbering a hundred. 

 Aside from a quavering, mouse-Iiice squeak, the marsh owl 

 apparently makes no sound. Its flight is positively uncanny in 

 its silence. Like the barn and the long-eared owls, this invalu- 

 able ally earns the fullest protection from the farmers. 



Barred Owl 



(Syrnium nebulosum) 



Called also: HOOT OWL; WOOD OWL 

 (Illustration facing p. 305) 



Length — 18 to 20 inches ; female the larger. 



Malf and Female — Upper parts grayish brown, each feather with 

 two or three white or buff bars ; facial disk gray, finely 

 barred or mottled with dusky ; eyes bluish black, and bill yel- 

 low ; under parts white washed with buff ; the breast barred ; 

 the sides and underneath streaked with dusky ; legs and feet 

 feathered to nails ; wings and tail barred with brown; no 

 ear tufts. 



Range — Eastern United States to Nova Scotia and Manitoba; west 

 to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas ; nesting through- 

 out range. 



Season — Permanent resident. 



lVhoo-whoo-too-whoo-too-0-0, with endless variation, a deep 

 toned, guttural, weird, startling sound, and haw-haw-hoo-hoo, 

 like a coarse, mocking laugh, come from the noisy hoot owl be- 

 tween dusk and midnight, rarely at sunrise, more rarely still by 

 day, sometimes from a solitary hooter, sometimes in a duet 

 sung out of time. Every one knows the hoot. One hears it 

 most frequently at the nesting season. Once in a very great 

 while this owl gives a shriek to make one's blood curdle. Many 

 of us have attracted the bird by imitating its notes. Because 

 the voice of the great horned owl, that "tiger among birds," 

 is so like it, the barred owl is credited with its larger kinsman's 

 atrocities and shot. Its own talons are not wholly guiltless of 

 innocent blood, to be sure, since out of one hundred and nine 

 stomachs examined by Dr. Fisher for the Department of Agri- 

 culture, five contained young poultry or game, and thirteen other 

 birds ; but over one-third contained mice and other small mam- 



340 



