BARRED OWL 171 



lighter down the breast, and at length clear rusty yel- 

 lowish or cream-color beneath and about feathered feet. 

 Wings large and long, with a distinct large black spot 

 beneath ; bill and claws, I think, black. Saw no ears. 

 Kept turning its head and great black eyes this way 

 and that when it heard me, but appeared not to see 

 me. Saw my shadow better, for I ap[proached] on the 

 sunny side. I am inclined to think it the short-eared 

 owl, though I could see no ears, though it reminded 

 me of what I had read of the hawk owl. 1 It was a 

 foot or more long and spread about three feet. Flew 

 somewhat flappingly, yet hawk-like. Went within two 

 or three rods of it. 



BAKRED OWL 



Dec. 14, 1858. I see at Derby's shop a barred owl 

 (Strix nebulosa), 2 taken in the woods west of the fac- 

 tory on the 11th, found (with its wing broke [sic]) by 

 a wood-chopper. It measures about three and a half 

 feet in alar extent by eighteen to twenty inches long, 

 or nearly the same as the cat owl, but is small and with- 

 out horns. It is very mild and quiet, bears handling 

 perfectly well, and only snaps its bill with a loud sound 

 at the sight of a cat or dog. It is apparently a female, 

 since it is large and has white spots on the wings. The 

 claws are quite dark rather than dark horn-color. It 

 hopped into the basin of the scales, and I was surprised 



1 [The description is that of the short-eared owl, except that the 

 eyes of that species are yellow, not black. The pupils may have been 

 dilated, however, so as to give a general impression of black eyes.] 



s [Now Strix varia.1 



