Il6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and Georgia. In New York the nesting season varies from March 12, 

 when fresh eggs have been taken near New York City, to April I (Branch- 

 port) and May i (Herkimer county). 



Habits. This is the most vociferous of our owls. Its notes are deep- 

 toned and dismal, usually a combination of whoos or whaas, sometimes 

 interspersed with sounds like the laughter of demons or " like the horrified 

 shriek of a half -strangled person." The commonest of its performances, 

 which has gained it the name of " eight hooter " among the north woods 

 guides, may be written as follows: Whoo-whoo, hoo-hoo; whoo-whoo, hoo- 

 hooaw, the last syllable being prolonged and ending in a falling guttural 

 aw sound. There can be little doubt that the stories told by pioneers of 

 the blood-curdling shrieks of the " panther " which followed them in the 

 woods are to be attributed to this bird. 



The Barred owl, in spite of its size, rarely attacks poultry or the larger 

 game birds, but more than 60 per cent of its food consists of mice and other 

 small mammals, and it is fond of crayfish, frogs and insects. I have known 

 repeated instances of poultry roosting in the trees of a farmyard where these 

 owls were hooting every night about the place without a single fowl being 

 disturbed. About 16 per cent of their food, however, consists of birds. 



The nest of the Barred owl is usually in a hollow tree or in the old 

 nest of a crow or large hawk. The eggs are 2 or 3 in number, sometimes 

 4, and measure about 2 by 1.66 inches. 



Scotiaptex nebulosa nebulosa (J. R. Forster) 

 Great Gray Owl 



Plate 54 



Strix nebulosa Forster. Philos. Trans. 1772. 62:424 

 Syrnium cinereum DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 26, fig. 29 

 Scotiaptex nebulosa nebulosa. A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. 171. 

 No. 370 

 scotiaptex, Gr. axoxia, darkness, and (probably) xTuy?, which Prof. D'Arcy Thompson 

 considers equivalent to u^pi?, the Eagle owl; nebulosa, Lat., cloudy, gray 



Description. Very large; no ear tufts; eyes and bill yellow; upper 

 parts dusky grayish brown, mottled with white in irregular broken bars; 



