THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. Ill 



from the front backwards, black, with white and 

 buff margin; face, bordered with black; eyes, yellow; bill, 

 one inch in length, blackish horn color; forehead and 

 crown, deep brown, speckled with minute spots of white 

 and rusty; back and upper parts generally very similar to 

 the preceding; breast and under parts coarsely streaked 

 with black and buff, the belly transversely barred with 

 dark brown and white, each feather centrally streaked 

 with dusky; tail, roiinded, same length as the wings, 

 dark brown, marbled with dull white and rusty, with six 

 or eight bars of dark slate; upper wing, dark brown, 

 sprinkled and spotted with white, pale brown and dusky; 

 legs, plain pale rusty, feathered to the claws; claws, blu- 

 ish black, large and sharp. 



The birds very rarely build their own nests; generally 

 they lay their eggs in the abandoned nest of a Crow, 

 Hawk, Heron or Squirrel. The eggs are from three to six 

 in number, of a dirty white, and one and three-fifths by 

 one and one-third inches in size. 



The birds breed and are distributed throughout temper- 

 ate North America, and are fairly common, more numer- 

 ous in winter, when they are at times seen in colonies of 

 considerable numbers. 



Their cry is variable, from a hoot slightly resembling 

 the barking of a young dog to the mewing of a cat. 



This Owl is strictly nocturnal and never feeds in the 

 day time. It is a beneficial bird, as will be seen by the 

 following results of the examination of lOY stomachs: 1 

 contained a game bird, 15 other birds, 8i mice, 5 other 

 mammals, 1 insects and 15 were empty. 



Otvl, Jffonkey-faced. See Barn Owl. 



Owl, Saw-whet, or Jlcndian Owl. — Length, eight 

 inches; extent, sixteen inches. Its small size and ab- 

 sence of ear tufts makes it readily distinguishable from 

 others of the Owl family. The bill is black and two-fifths 



