THE BARRED OWL. 
135 
day birds ever prove dangerous enemies, their conduct towards the Owls 
is evidently productive of great annoyance to them. When the Barred Owl 
is shot at and wounded., it snaps its bill sharply and frequently, raises all its 
feathers, looks towards the person in the most uncouth manner, but, on the 
least chance of escape, moves off in great leaps with considerable rapidity. 
The Barred Owl is very often exposed for sale in the New Orleans market. 
The Creoles make gumbo of it, and pronounce the flesh palatable. 
Barred Owl, Strix nebulosa, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. iv. p. 61. 
Strix nebulosa, Bonap. Syn., p. 38. 
Barred Owl, Strix nebulosa, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 133. 
Barred Owl, Strix nebulosa, And. Orn. Biog., vol. i. p. 242 ; vol. v. p. 386. 
General colour of upper parts light reddish-brown ; face and greater 
part of the head brownish-white ; the feathers of the latter broadly 
marked with brown, of which a narrow band passes from the bill along 
the middle of the head ; feathers of the back and most of the wing- 
coverts largely spotted with white ; primary coverts, quills, and tail, 
barred with light brownish-red ; wings and tail tipped with greyish-white ; 
lower parts pale brownish-red, longitudinally streaked with brown, 
excepting the neck and upper part of the breast, which are transversely 
marked ; the abdomen, winch is yellowish-white, and the tarsal feathers, - 
which are light-reddish. 
Male, 18, 40. 
Genus V.— OTUS, Cuv. EARED-OWL. 
Bill short, stout, broader than high at the base, compressed toward the 
end ; upper mandible with its dorsal line slightly curved from the base, 
toward the end decurved, the ridge broad at the base, narrowed anteriorly, 
the sides convex toward the tip, which is acute, and descends obliquely ; 
lower mandible straight, with the dorsal line very short and slightly convex, 
the back and sides convex, the edges toward the end decurved, and with a 
slight sinus on each side, the tip obliquely truncate. Nostrils large, oblique, 
oblong. Conch of extreme size, extending from the level of the forehead 
over the eye to the chin in a semilunar form, with an anterior semicircular 
flap in its whole length ; the aperture large, of a rhomboidal form. Feet of 
moderate length, and stout ; tarsi short, feathered, as are the toes ; the first 
shortest, the second and fourth nearly equal : claws long, curved in the fourth 
of a circle, extremely acute, the first and second rounded beneath. Plumage 
