BARRED OWL. 153 



This Owl is a lover of deep, dark woods, where it spends most of the 

 day in quiet among the thick foliage. Heavy wooded swamps, with 

 their luxuriant growth and festoons of vines, or the stately hemlock 

 forests are the places preeminently suited to the bird's taste. 



It is the commonest species of rapacious bird throughout the ex- 

 tensive swamps covered by cypress and other growths which abound in 

 the coast region of the South, where as many as fifteen or twenty may 

 be seen in a day's tramp. Although not usually seen near habitations, 

 it sometimes wanders into large towns, either in search of food or the 

 shelter afforded by some attractive clump of evergreens, 



Mr. P. H. Carpenter makes the interesting statement that in the vi- 

 cinity of Kingfleld, Me., this Owl often resorts to barns during the day 

 time and is known locally as "Barn Owl." (Ornithologist and Oolo- 

 gist, vol. XI, 1886, p, 177.) 



When kept in captivity it soon becomes tame, especially when taken 

 young, and makes a gentle and interesting pet, soon learning to know 

 its master and to greet his coming with signs of affection and pleastire. 



This Owl, like others of the family, generally remains quiet during 

 the brightest part of the day. This habit is from choice and is not 

 due to any defect in its vision. The familiar instances cited in books, 

 where is has been known to alight on a collector's gun barrel or the 

 back of a cow, are not evidences of defective vision, but merely show 

 that the bird was preoccupied or had its eyes fastened on some object 

 of unusual interest. A hawk has been known to follow a chicken into 

 the house and attack it under a chair occupied by a person ; yet no one 

 will argue that the hawk was unable to see the individual. Mr. Prank 

 BoUes found that his pet Barred Owls could not see in an ordinary 

 degree of darkness, and thinks they sleep at night. (Auk, vol. vii, 

 1890, p. 106.) 



Although usually quiet, it evidently does some hunting during the 

 day, especially during the breeding season. Once on a bright after- 

 noon in May, near Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, the writer saw 

 one of these Owls flying over a protection levee to a swamp on the op- 

 posite side. It carried in its talons a bird, presumably a grackle, judg- 

 ing from the number of these birds which followed in hot pursuit and 

 attacked it evidently in the hope of liberating their unfortunate comrade. 

 This black and irritated mass followed the Owl into the swamp beyond, 

 from which their scoldings could be heard for someJ;ime. 



The hearing of the Barred Owl, like all other species, is very acute. 

 On one occasion the writer was standing near a large tree in a dense 

 swamp in the vicinity of Mobile, attempting to attract a small bird by 

 the aid of a low squeaking noise. Through the foliage, some 50 yards or 

 more distant, a pair of large birds were seen winging their way, and as the 

 noise was continued they alighted within a few feet of its source, but on 

 the opposite side of the tree. Great was their surprise to see a head 



