THE BARRED OWL. 135 



day birds ever prove dangerous enemies, their conduct towards the Owls is 

 evidently productive of great annoyance to them. When the Barred Owl is 

 shot at and wounded, it snaps its bill sharply and frequently, raises all its 

 feathers, looks towards the person in the most uncouth manner, but, on the 

 least chance of escape, moves off in great leaps with considerable rapidity. 



The Barred Owl is very often exposed for sale in the New Orleans market. 

 The Creoles make gumbo of it, and pronounce the flesh palatable. 



Barred Owl, Strix nebulosa, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. iv. p. 61. 



Strix nebulosa, Bonap. Syn., p. 38. 



Barred Owl, Strix nebulosa, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 133. 



Barred Owl, Strix nebulosa, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. i. p. 242; vol. v. p. 386. 



General colour of upper parts light reddish-brown; face and greater part 

 of the head brownish-white; the feathers of the latter broadly marked with 

 brown, of which a narrow band passes from the bill along the middle of the 

 head; feathers of the back and most of the wing-coverts largely spotted with 

 white; primary coverts, quills, and tail, barred with light brownish-red; 

 wings and tail tipped with greyish-white; lower parts pale brownish-red, 

 longitudinally streaked with brown, excepting the neck and upper part of 

 the breast, which are transversely marked; the abdomen, which is yellowish- 

 white, and the tarsal feathers, which are light reddish. 



Male, 18, 40. 



Genus V.— OTUS, Cuv. EARED-OWL. 



Bill short, stout, broader than high at the base, compressed toward the 

 end; upper mandible with its dorsal line slightly curved from the base, 

 toward the end decurved, the ridge broad at the base, narrowed anteriorly, 

 the sides convex toward the tip, which is acute, and descends obliquely; 

 lower mandible straight, with the dorsal line very short and slightly convex, 

 the back and sides convex, the edges toward the end decurved, and with a 

 slight sinus on each side, the tip obliquely truncate. Nostrils large, oblique, 

 oblong. Conch of extreme size, extending from the level of the forehead 

 over the eye to the chin in a semilunar form, with an anterior semicircular 

 flap in its whole length; the aperture large, of a rhomboidal form. Feet of 

 moderate length, and stout; tarsi short, feathered, as are the toes; the first 

 shortest, the second and fourth nearly equal; claws long, curved in the fourth 

 of a circle, extremely acute, the first and second rounded beneath. Plumage 



