SCREECH OWL (Otus asio) 



Length, about ? 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. 



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 con- 

 tained 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. 



Photograpli by George Shiras, 3rd 



A REMARKABLE FLASHLIGHT OF A SNOWY OWL 



White Fish River, Michigan. The author was looking for deer. Flash held in one hand 

 and camera in the other. The owl fell 15 feet into the water, swore like a trooper, and 

 waded ashore. 



73 



