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BRACHYOTUS PALUSTRIS. 
As remarked, the full hoot is often given by clay during the breeding season and on one or 
two occasions, I have heard it in winter in Maine, where the country people say that when 
the Owls hoot before sunset, it foretells a storm, 
The Great Horned Owls are, with prehaps the exception of the Eagles, the very first 
in the season among our native birds to breed, depositing their eggs in Florida as soon as 
the first of January, but not laying in New England until the middle of February. The 
young grow slowly and do not leave the nest for, at least, three months. These Owls, like 
the Barred, almost invariably breed in hollow stubs in the South but further north, they 
frequently construct nests for themselves or remodel those of Hawks or Crows but they oc¬ 
casionally resort to holes in this section for I once found some eggs, all of which, excepting 
one, were broken, in a cavity of a prostrate log at Upton, Maine. The stub which con¬ 
tained the nest, must have been thrown down shortly after the eggs were deposited, for 
the whole one, although addled, showed no signs of incubation. The Great Horned Owls, 
like other species, wander considerably when not breeding, especially in the North during 
winter, but they are not strictly migratory. 
FAMILY III. OTUNIDiE. THE EAKED OWLS. 
Sternum , emarginate. Marginal indentations , four , not wide nor deep. Tarsus , very 
short. Feet , small. Eyes , rather small. Facial disk , nearly perfect. Ear tufts , always 
present. 
The sternum is short and well arched, with the top of the keel considerably rounded. 
The outer marginal indentations are deeper than the inner. The size is medium with the 
form slender. The bill is strong but not very long. The plumage is long, full, and quite 
downy. The brings and tail are long, and although the ear tufts are always present, they 
are of varying length. 
GENUS I. BRACHYOTUS. THE EARED OWLS. 
Gen. Oh. The sternum is considerably arched, with a well rounded, heel which equals in height erne half the width of the 
■sternum. Outer marginal indentations, but little deeper than the inner. Coracoids, rather short, not equal in length to the 
top of the Jceel and not set on at a very wide angle. Furcula, quite well developed. Tail and wings, long. There are very 
short ear tufts. 
Members of this genus have the ear tufts present but they are not particularly prominent. The plumage,, although 
downy, is not strikingly long. The eyes are not large and are usually yellow in color. The sterno-trachealis is quite 
stout, and there is a slender bronchialis, but no other laryngeal muscles. The oesophagus is nearly straight, and opens 
into a small proventriculus with simple glands arranged in a narrow, zonular band. The stomach is not large, globular 
in form, with very thin walls. The coeca are quite long with the blind ends dilated. The fold of the duodenum is long, in¬ 
closing a small, but wide, pancreas. Both lobes of the liver are nearly equal in size. There is but one species within our 
limits. 
BRACHYOTUS PALUSTRIS. 
Short-eared Owl. 
Brachyotus palustris Gould., Pro. Zool. Soc., London; 1837, 10. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Ch. Form, slender. Size, medium. Sternum, stout. The marginal indentations are not deep. Tongue, rather 
thick and fleshy, horny at the tip which is rounded and slighty bifid. Ear tufts, short. 
