The American Barn Owl 
Authorities. — Gambel (Strix pratincola), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. iii., 
1846, p. 47 (Calif.); Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, i., 1847, p. 28 (Calif.; distr. 
syn., habits, etc.); Fisher, Hawks and Owls of the U. S., 1893, p. 132, pi. 19 (food); 
Miller, Condor, vol. xii., 1910, p. 12 (fossil); Tyler, Condor, vol. xvii, 1915, p. 57 (San 
Joaquin Valley; nest, food, habits, etc.). 
IF ABILITY and worth are to count for anything, the Barn Owl, 
and not the Moon, ought to be the Queen of the Night. Whoever thought 
of calling the blear-eyed old man in the moon a “queen” anyhow? Not 
to mention the mistake in sex, his derelictions are notorious. He is off 
the job half the time, though he manages to keep the world in the dark 
as to his misdoings in absentia. He is an inveterate tippler,—that we 
know. I have myself seen him “take a horn”—two of them, in fact. 
And that he goes on a spree and gets full every month is the scandal of 
the heavens. He rises at irregular hours, and for days after the big 
debauch his friend Phoebus has to help him to bed. Away with this 
tradition of moonly virtues! 
Taken in San Bernardino County Photo by Pierce 
THE SIESTA 
NOTE GRADATION IN SIZE OF THESE INFANTS 
JO/I 
