SCREECH OWL (Otus asio) 
Length, about 8 inches. Our smallest owl 
with ear tufts. There are two distinct phases 
of plumage—one grayish and the other bright 
rufous. 
Range: Resident throughout the United 
States, southern Canada, and northern Mexico. 
Habits and economic status: The little 
screech owl inhabits orchards, groves, and 
thickets, and hunts for its prey in such places 
as well as along hedge-rows and in the open. 
During warm spells in winter it forages quite 
extensively and stores up in some hollow tree 
considerable quantities of food for use during 
inclement weather. Such larders frequently 
contain enough mice or other prey to bridge 
over a period of a week or more. With the 
exception of the burrowing owl, it is probably 
the most insectivorous of the nocturnal birds 
of prey. It feeds also upon small mammals, 
birds, reptiles, batrachians, fish, spiders, craw- 
fish, scorpions, and earthworms. Grasshop- 
pers, crickets, ground-dwelling beetles, and 
caterpillars are its favorites among insects, as 
are field mice among mammals and sparrows 
among birds. Out of 324 stomachs examined, 
169 were found to contain insects; 142, small 
mammals; 56, birds, and 15, crawfish. The 
screech owl should be encouraged to stay near 
barns and outhouses, as it will keep in check 
house mice and wood mice, which frequent 
such places. 
White Fish River, Michigan. 
and camera in the other. 
waded ashore. 
The author was looking for deer. L 
The owl fell 15 feet into the water, swore like a trooper, and 
73 
BARN OWL (Aluco pratincola) 
Length, about 17 inches. Facial disk not cir- 
cular as in our other owls; plumage above, 
pale yellow; beneath, varying from silky white 
to pale bright tawny. 
Range: Resident in Mexico, in the southern 
United States, and north to New York, Ohio, 
Nebraska, and California. 
Habits and economic status: The barn owl, 
often called monkey-faced owl, is one of the 
most beneficial of the birds of prey, since it 
feeds almost exclusively on small mammals 
that injure farm produce, nursery, and orchard 
stock. It hunts principally in the open and 
consequently secures such mammals as pocket 
gophers, field mice, common rats, house mice, 
harvest mice, kangaroo rats, and cotton rats. 
It occasionally captures a few birds and insects. 
At least a half bushel of the remains of pocket 
gophers have been found in the nesting cavity 
of a pair of these birds. Remembering that a 
gopher has been known in a short time to 
girdle seven apricot trees worth $100, it is hard 
to overestimate the value of the service of a 
pair of barn owls; 1,247 pellets of the barn 
owl collected from the Smithsonian towers 
contained 3,100 skulls, of which 3,004, or 97 
per cent, were of mammals; 92, or 3 per cent, of 
birds, and 4 were of frogs. The bulk consisted 
of 1,987 field mice, 656 house mice, and 210 
common rats. This valuable owl should be 
rigidly protected everywhere. 
Photograph by George Shiras, 3rd 
A REMARKABLE FLASHLIGHT OF A SNOWY OWL 
Flash held in one hand 
