THE HORNED OWL FAMILY 
221 
can judge of the value or lack of value of this 
bird to the country at large. It does not seem 
as if the forty-six mice are a fair equivalent for 
the useful birds and small mammals destroyed. 
Dr. Fisher’s conclusion is as follows: “If a 
fair balance be struck, it must be considered 
that this Owl is on the whole beneficial, and 
hence should occupy a place in the list of birds 
to be protected.” 
The Barred Owl is next in size to the great 
horned owl. It is from 20 to 22 inches long, 
heavy-bodied, round-headed, and quite with- 
out “horns,” or “ears.” Its head, neck and 
breast are marked by many black horizontal 
bars on a gray or creamy-white ground, and the 
breast and abdomen have a few thick, perpen- 
dicular bars. Many times a big Barred Owl of 
my acquaintance has exclaimed to me through 
the darkness, in a fearfully hollow and sepul- 
chral voice, — “ Who? W ho- who- who- who-wh 6- 
who? Ah!” It is like the war-cry of an angry 
ghost. 
This bird ranges throughout the eastern half 
of the United States, and westward almost to 
the Rocky Mountains; and it frequently finds 
its way into captivity. 
The Great Gray Owl 1 is the largest member 
of this Family found in the New World. It 
is an arctic bird, one-fourth larger than the great 
horned owl, and even in winter has never wan- 
dered farther south than the Ohio River. In 
Alaska and British Columbia it inhabits the tim- 
bered regions, and does not wander far into the 
treeless Barren Grounds. Anyone who captures 
a very large owl of a dusky brown or dusky gray 
color, larger than a great horned owl, but with no 
ear-tufts, may know that he has secured a speci- 
men of the rare and handsome Great Gray Owl. 
The Saw-Whet Owl 2 is a very small Owl, 
and so shy that few people ever see it; but it 
feeds almost exclusively upon mice, and any 
bird which wages perpetual war on those pests 
deserves honorable mention in these pages. In 
appearance it looks very much like a small gray- 
phase screech-owl without ears. It may be 
looked for but it will seldom be found — almost 
anywhere in the United States from the inter- 
national boundary to the Gulf States and Cali- 
fornia. 
1 Sco-ti-ap'tex neb-u-lo’sa. Length , 25 to 30 inches. 
2 Nyc'ta-la a-ca'di-ca. Length, 8 inches. 
The Screech-Owl 3 — with an awful shiver 
in its voice, but no screech whatever — is so 
widely distributed, and so easily affected by cli- 
matic variations, that the original species has 
been split up into eight varieties, or subspecies. 
Thus we now have the Texas, California, Rocky 
Mountain, Mexican, and Florida Screech-Owls, 
and others too numerous to mention. The dif- 
ferences between all these are not very great. 
Let each American know his own Screech-Owl, 
and study its habits, and he will then know 
the others, quite well enough for all practical 
purposes. 
To me, the cry of this little Owl is one of the 
most doleful sounds in animated nature, not even 
excepting the howl of a wolf. It is like the 
quivering, shivering, heart-broken wail of a lost 
spirit, and suggests chattering teeth and freezing 
vocal chords. Written out it is “ Woe-woe- 
woe-woe-woe-woe-woe ah!” But no phonetic 
spelling can even suggest the high-pitched men- 
tal and physical anguish expressed in the cry 
that one hears. 
The Screech-Owl is a round-bodied little fel- 
low, sometimes almost as broad as it is high; 
and its head is surmounted at the corners by 
very respectable ears. In its gray phase, this 
bird looks very much like a dwarf great horned 
3 Meg'as-cops a'si-o. Length, 7 to 9 inches. 
