50 
OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: BULLETIN 250 
Its call is a series of soft, tremulous notes, weird and pathetic, but 
not unmusical. It prefers to live near man, where its destruction 
of mice and vermin is of great benefit. Its diet is composed of a 
great variety of animal life. In town, House Sparrows compose its 
chief food. It usually hunts during - the twilight hours after sunset 
and before dawn, or on moonlight nig-hts. During - the day it seeks 
the seclusion of a hollow tree where its presence is often revealed by 
the Blue Jays. This Owl takes advantage^ a box in which to rear 
its young, and more useful tenants could not be found. 
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BARRED OWL, Strix-varia Daria (Bart.) 
Of our resident species, second in size only to the Great Horned 
Owl, from which it is readily distinguished by the absence of ear- 
tufts and by its smaller size. It is restricted to woodland, dense 
timbered bottom-land being pre¬ 
ferred. It is abroad at night, 
but sometimes hunts by day dur¬ 
ing cloudy weather; usually dur¬ 
ing bright days it seeks the most 
secluded part of the forest, 
where, amid the dense growth, or 
in a hollow tree, it may escape 
persecution by the Crows. If a 
hollow tree is not available for a 
nesting site, an unused Crow’s 
nest is frequently chosen and 
the eggs are commonly deposited 
by the last week in February. 
This species is accused of the 
destruction of poultry and game 
birds, but out of 109 stomachs 
examined by Dr. Fisher, only 
four contained poultry, and one 
other the trace of a game bird. 
Its usual food is mice, squirrels, 
rabbits, shrews, moles, and other 
mammals, nearly all of which are 
more or less destructive. Much of the harm done by the Great 
Horned Owl is mistakenly charged to the account of this useful 
species. 
GREAT HORNED OWL, Bubo yirginianus virginianus (Gmel.) 
The largest, most powerful and destructive member of the fam¬ 
ily breeding within the state. Like the preceding species, it 
prefers the more densely wooded lowlands, where it hunts by night 
BARRED OWL, Strix Daria aria (Bart.) 
Fig. 15. After Bulletin No. 3, Div. 
of Ornithology and Mammalogy, U. 
S. D. A. Photographed from litho¬ 
graphic plate. 
