147 



THE LITTLE SCREECH OWL. 



-f-BuBo Asio, Linn. 



PLATE XL. — Adult and Young. 



This Owl, although found in the Southern States, is there very rare. 

 During a long residence in Louisiana, I have not met with more than two 

 individuals. On advancing towards the confluence of the Ohio and Missis- 

 sippi, we find them becoming rather more numerous; above the Falls of the 

 former, they increase in number; and as the traveller advances towards the 

 sources of that noble river, their mournful notes are heard in every quarter 

 during mild and serene nights. In Virginia, Maryland, and all the Eastern 

 Districts, the bird is plentiful, particularly during the autumnal and winter 

 months, and is there well known under the name of the Screech Owl. 



You are presented, kind reader, with three figures of this species, the 

 better to shew you the differences which exist between the young and the 

 full-grown bird. The contrast of colouring in these different stages I have 

 thought it necessary to exhibit, as the Red Oivl of Wilson and other natu- 

 ralists is merely the young of the bird called by the same authors the Mottled 

 Owl, and which, in fact, is the adult of the species under consideration. 

 The error committed by the author of the "American Ornithology," for 

 many years misled all subsequent students of nature; and the specific identity 

 of the two birds which he had described as distinct under the above names, 

 was first publicly maintained by my friend Charles Lucian Bonaparte, 

 although the fact was long before known to many individuals with whom I 

 am acquainted, as well as to myself. 



The flight of the Mottled Owl is smooth, rapid, protracted and noiseless. 

 It rises at times above the top branches of the highest of our forest trees, 

 whilst in pursuit of large beetles, and at other times sails low and swiftly 

 over the fields, or through the woods, in search of small birds, field-mice, 

 moles or wood-rats, from which it chiefly derives its subsistence. Sometimes 

 on alighting, which it does plumply, the Mottled Owl immediately bends its 

 body, turns its head to look behind it, performs a curious nod, utters its 

 notes, then shakes and plumes itself, and resumes its flight, in search of prey. 

 It now and then, while on wing, produces a clicking sound with its man- 

 dibles, but more frequently when perched near its mate or young. This I 

 have thought is done by the bird to manifest its courage, and let the hearer 

 know that it is not to be meddled with, although few birds of prey are more 



