222 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 
BARN OWL OFTEN CALLED MONKEY- 
FACED OWL 
By WILLIAM L. FINLEY 
study of a barn owl family. They had a nest in the gable end 
of my neighbor’s barn and occupied it for a number of years, 
This year they had three young, and at three weeks old they were the 
funniest, fuzziest ‘‘monkey-faced’’ little creatures I had ever seen. 
S ‘stu years ago I had a good opportunity to make an intimate 

Young Barn Owls. 
They blinked, snapped their bills and hissed like a box full of snakes. 
They bobbed and screwed around in more funny attitudes than any 
contortionist you ever saw. 
We crept out one night and hid in a brush heap by the barn. 
Before long the scratching and soft hissing of the young owls told us 
that their breakfast time had conie. The curtain of the night had 
fallen. The day creatures were at rest. Suddenly a shadow flared 
across the dim-lit sky. The young owls in some way knew of the 
approach of food, for there was a sudden outburst in the nest box 
