332 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Three young “that had left their nest and were seeking their own 
livelihood” were found by Mr. E. S. Steele “in a dark canyon west of 
Reserve.” They were so tame that he succeeded in catching one, 
taking him home to study his diet. Put in a barn overrun with rats 
and mice he quickly cleaned them out. When offered the bodies of 
birds and parts of chicken, even when hungry he refused to touch them, 
but as Mr. Steele says, “When I approached with a rodent I could 
notice an expression of pleasure creep into his countenance—it seemed 
as if he actually smiled! He never refused at any time of day to take 
a squirrel, chipmunk, rat, or mouse from my hand” (1927, p. 123). 
Two Spotted Owls apparently lived in the cold spruce and fir 
gulch above our 8,500-foot camp in the Mogollons in 1906, and the 
variety of their notes as they called to each other in the mornings and 
evenings was surprising. One of their commonest calls was a short 
bark, and another wlio-wlio-who ', but on moonlight nights the two 
birds were heard answering each other, a soft conversational who-who- 
who-who-ivho-who-who being replied to by a sharp wheck-wheck-wheck- 
wheck-wheck. 
AMERICAN LONG-EARED OWL: Asio wilsonianus (Lesson) 
Description .— Length: 13-16 inches, wing 11.5-12, tail 6-6.2, bill .6, tarsusT.2. 
Ear-tufts long , conspicuous, near together, bill with bristles at base, legs and feet 
feathered to claws. Adults: Upperparts brownish-black, minutely mottled or ver- 
miculated with grayish white and variegated with tawny of basal parts of feathers; 
tail and wings barred, under primary coverts brownish black making dark u wrist- 
spot (Seton-Thompson, 1901, pp. 187-189); facial disc mainly tawny , framed in 
black, “eyebrows,” lores, and chin, whitish, underparts whitish (yellowish brown 
beneath surface), with dark shaft streaks and crossbars; iris yellow, bill and claws 
blackish. Young in Juvenal plumage: Ear tufts shorter and facial disc darker than 
in adults, most of body feathers brown, barred and tipped with whitish. 
Range.— Breeds from coast of southern Alaska, central British Columbia, 
southern Mackenzie, central Manitoba, Ontario, southern Quebec, and Newfound¬ 
land south to Virginia, Arkansas, northern Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern 
California; winters from southern Canada to Georgia, the Gulf States, and central 
Mexico. 
State Records.— The Long-eared Owl breeds in the northern United States 
and is not rare as a breeder south to southern La Plata County, Colorado, within 20 
miles of the New Mexico boundary. Mitchell records it as breeding in San Miguel 
County, New Mexico, up to 10,000 feet. [Ligon has found it nesting in the northern 
half of the State, west of the Rio Grande (1916-1918), and 35 miles northwest of 
Grant, at 7,500 feet, on June 28, 1916, found a nest and one almost feathered young 
out of the nest.] 
In the fall migration it was noted along the Rio Grande at Forts Fillmore and 
Thorn (Henry); in September, 1911, near Mesilla Park (McAnnich); [on September 
22, 1924, at Santa Fe (Jensen)]; at Silver City, November 5, 1912 (Kellogg) - State 
College, November 17, 1915 (Merrill). 
The species occurs in New Mexico in winter. It has been seen in Bear Canyon 
San Andres Mountains, January 20, 1903 (Gaut); at Silver City, February 3 to 17’ 
1884 (Marsh); at the same place in January, 1905 (Hunn); in the vicinity of the 
