The American Barn Owl 



By W. Leo Dawson 



Synonym. — Moxkey-faced Owl. 



Description. — Adult: General color of upper parts ochraceous yellow; this 

 lightly overlaid or mottled with gray, the typical mottled gray feathers having 

 dusky centers and white tips ; indistinct dusky bars on wing-quills and tail- 

 feathers, clearest centrally ; entire under parts white, usually more or less washed 

 with fulvous or tawny, and sparingly but sharply speckled with dusky; facial 

 disk white or whitish or tinged variously with ochraceous-buff, dark brown, or 

 even claret; the edges of the disk rusty and dark brown on the tips of the 

 feathers; bill light; feet light, nearly naked. The folded wing extends to or 

 beyond the end of the tail. Nestlings are covered with flufYy white down. 

 Length 14.00-18.00 (355.6-457.2); wing 12.25-14.00 (311.2-355.6); tail 5.25-7.50 

 (133.3-190.5); tarsus 2.25-3.25 (57.2-82.6); bill along culmen 1.00-1.25 

 (25.4-31.8). 



Recognition Marks. — Crow size; light colors, especially below; strongly 

 marked facial disk ; top-heavy appearance. 



Nest, in hollow trees or in crevices about towers, pigeon-houses, earth-banks, 

 etc., lined scantily with sticks and trash. Eggs, 5-11, white, ovate. Av. size, 

 1.70x 1.30 (43.2 x 33). 



General Range. — United States, rarely to the northern border, and Ontario, 

 southward througli ^lexico; northern limit of breeding range about latitude 41°. 



AS late as 1880 only five records of the appearance of this bird, within the 

 state were known to Dr. Wheaton, and none had ever been seen in Indiana. Soon 

 after that there was a notable increase in numbers north of the Ohio River. Mr. 

 Charles Dury, of Cincinnati, discovered a small colony in the town hall at Glen- 

 dale, Ohio, October 18, 1883, and concluded they must have nested there the 

 previous season. Some idea of the birds' usefulness in the community was con- 

 veyed by the "pellets," or little spheres of indigestible matter ejected by the Owls 

 from time to time. ''They covered the floor several inches deep in places. I 

 examined many of them and found them made up entirely of the hair and bones 

 of the smaller rodents, mostly mice. There must have been the debris of several 

 thousand mice and rats." Captain Bendire is certain that the captures of a sin- 

 gle pair of Barn Owls, during the nesting season, exceed those of a dozen cats 

 for the same period. 



The species has lately been reported from various points all over the state, 

 including several along the Lake Erie shore ; but the only region where it is yet 

 called common is in the lower Scioto Valley. Rev. W. F. Henninger, at Waverly, 

 mounted ten specimens brought in to him at various times from 1898 to 1901. 

 He says the birds are known locally as ''White Owls," and that they frequent the 

 bottom lands adjoining the Scioto River, breeding most commonly in the large 

 sycamores Avhich line that stream. 



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