136 LONG-EARED OWL. 



extremely soft and downy, facial disks complete, ruff distinct. Two small 

 tufts of elongated feathers on the head. Wings long and broad; the second 

 quill longest; the outer in its whole length, the second toward the end, and 

 the first alular feather with the filaments disunited and recurved at the ends. 

 Tail rather short, a little rounded. 



LONG-EARED OWL. 



-f Otus vulgaris, Fleming. 

 PLATE XXXVIL— Male. 



This Owl is much more abundant in our Middle and Eastern Atlantic 

 Districts than in the Southern or Western parts. My friend Dr. Bachman 

 has never observed it in South Carolina; nor have I met with it in Louisiana, 

 or any where on the Mississippi below the junction of the Ohio. It is not 

 very rare in the upper parts of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky, 

 wherever the country is well wooded. In the Barrens of Kentucky its 

 predilection for woods is rendered apparent by its not being found elsewhere 

 than in the "Groves;" and it would seem that it very rarely extends its 

 search for food beyond the skirts of those delightful retreats. In Pennsyl- 

 vania, and elsewhere to the eastward, I have found it most numerous on or 

 near the banks of our numerous clear mountain streams, where, during the 

 day, it is not uncommon to see it perched on the top of a low bush or fir. 

 At such times it stands with the body erect, but the tarsi bent and resting on 

 a branch, as is the manner of almost all our Owls. The head then seems the 

 largest part, the body being much more slender that it is usually represented. 

 Now and then it raises itself and stands with its legs and neck extended, as 

 if the better to mark the approach of an intruder. Its eyes, which were 

 closed when it was first observed, are opened on the least noise, and it seems 

 to squint at you in a most grotesque manner, although it is not difficult to 

 approach very near it. It rarely on such occasions takes to wing, but throws 

 itself into the thicket, and makes off on foot by means of pretty long leaps. 



The Long-eared Owl is careless as to the situation in which its young are 

 to be reared, and generally accommodates itself with an abandoned nest of 

 some other bird that proves of sufficient size, whether it be high or low, in 

 the fissure of a rock or on the ground. Sfmetimes however it makes a nest 

 itself, and this I found to be the case in one instance near the Juniata River 

 in Pennsylvania, where it was composed of green twigs with the leaflets 



