CHAPTEE XVII. 



SOME OE THE OWLS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



(Striges.) 



HEBE is a very interesting list of owls in the 

 avifauna of the United States and British Amer- 

 ica, while others occur in Mexico south to the 

 Isthmus, that as yet are not known to cross our 

 southern boundary-line. Of all these no species is handsomer, 

 more graceful in action, or of greater value to man, than the 

 American Barn Owl (Striso pratineola) , a form of very general 

 distribution in this country, though not common in northern or 

 northeastern sections. I have heard some people call this the 

 monkey-faced owl, and others the white owl, — the latter from 

 the fact that so much white occurs in its plumage. In Europe 

 there is also a Barn owl very closely akin to our own bird, and at 

 one time thought to be identical with it. 



This species has a total length varying between fifteen and 

 twenty-one inches, the variance being due to age or sex, or both. 

 The white of the lower parts may be tinged with a bright tawny 

 color, while the upper plumage is chiefly of a ochraceons-yellow 

 with a continuous grayish tinge to it, the latter being more or 

 less flecked and minutely spotted with white and neutral tint. 

 The quills and tail feathers are barred, and the entire plumage 

 has an extremely soft and delicate appearance, rendering the 

 identification of the species a very simple matter. 



The Barn Owl makes no nest, simply depositing its from five 

 to seven ovate white eggs in any convenient cavity, as a hollow 

 of a tree, corners in a steeple, tower, or barn, the burrows of such 

 animals as the badger, holes in cliffs, and the like. Sometimes 

 they lay large sets of eggs, but all of them do not hatch, as a rule. 

 A young bird of this species, in the mounted collection at the 

 Smithsonian Institution is nearly as large as the adult, having 

 acquired most all of its plumage, but over the latter still curi- 

 ously grows the feather-down, — and although by no means dense 

 enough to mask it, yet gives the bird a very remarkable ap- 

 pearance. 



Another owl that breeds more or less generally all over the 

 United States is the American Long-eared Owl, which, together 



