136 
LONG-EARED OWL. 
extremely soft and downy, facial'disks complete, ruff distinct. Two small 
tufts of elongated feathers on the head. Wings long and broad ; the second 
quill longest ; the outer in its whole length, the second toward the end, 
and the first alular feather with the filaments disunited and recurved at 
the ends. Tail rather short, a little rounded. 
LONG-EARED OWL. 
Otus vulgaris, Fleming. 
PLATE XXXVII.— Male. 
This Owl is much more abundant in our Middle and Eastern Atlantic 
Districts than in the Southern or Western parts. My friend Dr. Bachman 
has never observed it in South Carolina ; nor have I met with it in Louisiana, 
or any where on the Mississippi below the junction of the Ohio. It is not 
very rare in the upper parts of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky, 
wherever the country is well wooded. In the Barrens of Kentucky its 
predilection for woods is rendered apparent by itsf not being found elsewhere 
than in the “ Groves and it would seem that it very rarely extends its 
search for food beyond the skirts of thdse delightful retreats. In Pennsyl- 
vania, and elsewhere to the eastward, I have found it most numerous on or 
near the banks of our numerous clear mountain streams, where, during the 
day, it is not uncommon to see it perched on the top of a low bush or fir. 
At such times it stands with the body erect, but the tarsi bent and resting 
on a branch, as is the manner of almost all our Owls. The head, then seems 
the largest part, the body being much more slender than it is usually repre- 
sented. Now and then it raises itself and stands with its legs and neck ex- 
tended, as if the better to mark the approach of an intruder. Its eyes, which 
were closed when it was first observed, are opened on the least noi^e, and it 
seems to squint at you in a most grotesque manner, although it is not difficult 
to approach very near it. It rarely on such occasions takes to wing, but throws 
itself into the thicket, and makes off on foot by means of pretty long leaps. 
The Long-eared Owl is careless as to the situation in which its young are 
to be reared, and generally accommodates itself with an abandoned nest of 
some other bird that proves of sufficient size, whether it be high or low, in 
the fissure of a rock or on the ground. Sometimes however it makes a nest 
itself, and this I found to be the case in one instance near the Juniata river 
in Pennsylvania, where it was composed of green twigs with the leaflets 
