!M 
Barred. Owl 
humps of frozen earth, and had settled in the elm only a 
few minutes before we emerged from the woods.now climbed 
over the wall and advanced slowly down the slope toward 
the elm. At first the Owl did not seem to notice me but 
when I came to some snow and my foot-steps produced a slight 
crunching sound the bird instantly turned its head tov^ards 
me and half opened its wings. I stopped and we stared a.t 
each other for a minute or more, the Owl without blinking, 
his eyes perfectly round and black, his beak of a bright 
greenish yellow, his plumage everywhere of a faded or 
grayish brown with profuse and very conspicuous whitish bars 
and spots. When he turned to face me, a twig penetrated the 
plumage of his back and springing upward raised a bunch of 
the scapulars considerably above the surrounding feathers, 
giving him a ludicrously ragged appearance. Indeed there was 
nothing firm nor graceful in either his pose or outline. 
The facial disc, as with most Owls, was very conspicuous. 
After a little I tried to creep nearer but at the 
very first step the bird spread his broad wings and flapping 
them quickly and continuously ten or a dozen times just 
after leaving his perch gained sufficient impetus to glide 
a hundred yards or more further before alighting again. His 
course, during this flight, was at first directly towards 
the woods but on entering them he turned to the right and, 
scaling only a few feet above the ground, passed through a 
