The American Barn Owl in Ohio. 
The Barn Owl has been heretofore con- 
sidered an extremely rare visitor in Ohio. 
Many excellent ornithological collections 
of Ohio birds, have been made within the 
limits of the State, but few indeed are those 
who are so fortunate as to include in their 
series of Owls an Ohio specimen of Strix 
flammea. 
In Dr. Wheaton’s exceedingly valuable 
report of the “Birds of Ohio,” incorpo- 
rated in Volume IV of the Geological 
Survey of Ohio, he says: “Bare visitor.” 
“Not over half a dozen individuals record- 
ed.” The year 1861 marks its first known 
positive occurrence and capture, although it 
was supposed before this that it was an oc- 
casional straggling visitor in Ohio. Mr. 
Chas. Dury records the capture of two 
more, prior to 1878, both taken near Cin- 
cinnati. This, Mr. Dury remarks, is the 
only record, extending over a period of 
more than seventeen years, that we have of 
their occurrence in southern Ohio. 
In the summer of 1879, a friend informed 
me that he had a few days before shot a 
strange Owl. From his description of the 
bird I knew at once that it did not answer 
to the size, coloration and markings of our 
common Owls. I lost no time in going to 
see it, and after fishing it out of the creek 
where it had been thrown, I was delighted 
to find it to be a fine specimen of this rare 
Owl. Warm weather and flies had done 
their work well, but notwithstanding its 
j “ ripeness” it was after much patience and 
care converted into a passable skin. In 
1880, Mr. Markley took an adult male at 
Foster’s Landing, on the Ohio Biver, thir- 
ty-six miles above Cincinnati. From the 
interior of the State but two are recorded. 
One near Columbus, in 1878, and the other 
at Circleville, in the summer of 1873. This, 
I think, completes the li§t, and gives a to- 
tal of seven individuals, taken in a period 
of ’twenty-two years within the entire lim- 
its of the state. 
But whatever degree of rarity may have 
marked its occurrence heretofore, the past 
year has made full and ample reparation, 
especially as far as southern Ohio is 
concerned. Here is the list. On October 
18, ’83, a fine specimen of Strix flammea 
was brought to me by a farmer. This in- 
dividual was taken in an apple orchard 
near some grain sheds. The 15th of De- 
cember another was killed. This one I did 
not secure, as it was utilized for millinery 
purposes by one of our rural belles. Two 
more were added to the list on December 
I 22d, a third one escaping. A deep snow cov- 
ered the ground at this time. These were 
taken near the Miami river. The day before 
Chiistmas the fifth was killed in an open 
gram shed. Another was added to my 
collection January 12th, and the seventh 
and last on January 22d, 1884. Here then 
in a period of a little over three months, 
I was so fortunate as to secure as many in- 
dividuals of this species as had been taken 
in the previous twenty-two years. The 
, seven, too, were taken within a mile and a 
half of here. Of the two taken on Decem- 
ber 22d, one was but slightly wounded. 
This I placed in a small room of the house. 
I had here an excellent opportunity of ob- 
serving it, and was much amused at its 
comical attitudes. Each time the door 
was opened for a peep at his owlship, he 
would lower his head until it almost 
reached the floor, move it slowly and con- 
stantly from side to side, roll up his dark 
brown deep sunk shining eyes in the most 
solemn manner. This performance was 
repeated each time the door was opened. I 
handled him frequently before sacrificing 
him to science, and at no time did he offer 
resistance with his talons after the manner 
of Baptatorial birds, (and I assure you his 
talons were formidable enough,) but con- 
fined his line of defense to his bill alone. 
The Barn Owl is undoubtedly a very 
useful bird to the farmer, having as it has 
an almost unlimited penchant for rats and 
mice. Two or three pairs of these birds 
would in the course of a year destroy 
many hundreds of these pests that infest 
our barns and grain sheds. I quote the 
following from Mr. Dury’s article on the 
Barn Owl in the Cincinnati Natural Histo- 
ry J ournal. “ On going up into the tower 
of the ‘Town Hall’ of the village of Glen- 
dale,” (where several of these owls were 
secured the past year,) “I was astonished 
at the sight presented. The floor and 
ledges were covered with the cast up pel- 
lets of the birds. There were hundreds 
of these pellets, and must have contained 
the debris of several thousand rats and 
mice.” This is certainly evidence of the 
economic value of these birds. Mr. Dury 
also states that he found them living in 
harmony with several pairs of tame pig 
eons which had their quarters in the tower. 
; — R ■ T. Shepherd , Monroe , Ohio. 
O.&O. IX.Oct, 1884 .p,/.JJ'/ 3 -y : 
