Spotted Owl 201 
disk in a frame of black and white; blackish round tho eye, obscurely 
ringed with black and white ; iris blackish, bill dull yellow, claws horny- 
yellow. Length 19-2; wing 13-25; tail 9-0; tarsus 2-2. 
Young birds are barred throughout except the wing and tail quills, 
which are as in the adult. 
Distribution.— From, Newfoundland and Manitoba south to Georgia 
and Texas, west to Nebraska and Kansas; a resident except towards 
its northern limits. 
The Barred Owl is a rare straggler in Colorado. The only record is 
that of B. G. Voight, who, reports Aiken, found a pair breeding at 
Holyoke, in the north-east of the State near the Nebraska line, in 
March, 1897. One of the birds and two eggs weresecured. Gale 
believed that he saw a pair in the Boulder Valley in 1886, but gives 
no particulars. 
Habits——The Barred Owl or MHoot-Owl frequents 
heavy timber in swampy tracts or near water-courses. 
It is nocturnal as a rule, though occasionally seen abroad 
in cloudy weather, and has a very loud, weird and un- 
earthly hoot. Its nest is usually placed in a hollow tree, 
though sometimes the old nest of a Hawk or Crow is made 
use of. The eggs, two to four in number, are oval in 
shape, white in colour, and average 2°00 x 1°70. 
Spotted Owl. Strix occidentalis. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 369—Colorado Records—H. G. Smith 86, p. 284 ; 
Morrison 89, p. 66; Cooke 97, p. 77; Gilman 07, p. 154. 
Description.— Resembling S. varia but smaller, and the head and neck 
coarsely spotted, not barred, with white ; wing-quills spotted with pale 
brown and whitish, and broadly tipped with whitish ; below, whitish, 
barred throughout with brown, with streak-marks on, the belly. Length 
19; wing 12 to 13; tail 8-5 to 9-0; culmen -9. 
Distribution From Southern California, Arizona and Colorado 
south to Lower California and Guanajuato on, the Mexican, tableland. 
The occurrence of the Spotted Owl in Colorado rests on rather 
indefinite evidence. Mr. Aiken informs me he examined and identified 
a specimen brought to him some years ago, killed near Colorado Springs. 
Gilman states that he observed two examples near Fort Lewis in 
spring, and Brunner writes me that he saw in the summer of 1907 an 
Owl of this species on the south fork of the Trinchera Creek in 
Costilla co. 
