LONG-EARED OWL. AQ9 
withits wailing screech. In this city it is not a frequent viri'or, and 
confines its visits to the colder portions of the year. At such times it 
often appears to be driven to desperation to procure food. Mr. C. H. 
Wetmore informed me that some bird, probably an Owl, attempted for 
several successive nights to capture the shadow of a canary bird, which 
fell upon a white window curtain, near wnich its cage was suspended. 
Hoping the bird might prove to be an Acadian Owl, I requested that if 
possible he procure the specimen, which he did, it proving to be of this 
species. While the bird was lying in my office, it was seen by other 
gentlemen, who reported that presumably the same bird had made the 
the same attempt at their respective resijences. As might be expected 
in a bird which developed a hobby for so rare an article of diet, it was 
reduced to a shadow itself. Its ordinary food consists of large insects, 
mice and small birds. 
The nest of the Mottled Owl is placed in a hollowstump or trunk, often 
in a decaying apple tree. The eggs are from five to seven in number, 
pure white and nearly round. They measure 1.38 by 1.19. 
Genus OTUS. Cuvier. 
Size medium. Ears very large, with semi-cireular flap. Ear tufts long and con- 
apicucus; facial disc complete. Tarsi and tces feathered. 
Orus vuLGaris Fleming. 
var. WILSONIANUS (Less) All. 
Iong-eared Owl. 
Strix étus, AUDUBON, Orn. Biog., iv, 1833, 572. 
Otus vulga:is, AUDUBON, B. Am, i, 1840, 136. 
Otus wilsonianus, KirkPaTRICK, Ohio Farmer, viii, 1859, 27; Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1858, 
1859, 377.—WHEATON, Ohio Agrio. Rep. for 1860, 361; R-priot, }861, 3. 
Otus vulgaris, var. wilsonianus, WHEATON, Food at Birds, etc , Onie Agrie. Rep. for 1874, 
070; Reprint, 1875, 10 —Lanapon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 12; Jour. Cin. Soc Nat. 
Hist., i, 1878, 115; Reprint, 6; Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat Hist., 1879, 179; 
Reprint, 13. 
Olus vulyaris, FLEMING, Brit. An., 56. 
Otus wlsonianus, Lesson, Tr. Orn., i, 1831, 110. 
Otus vulgaris, var. wilsonianus, ALLEN, Bull. M.C. Z., ili, 1€72, 180. 
General plumage above a variegation of dark-brown, fulvous and whitish, in small 
pattern; breast more fulvous, belly whiter, the former sharply striped, the latter 
striped and elaborately barred, with blackish ; quills and tail mottled and closely barred 
with fulvous and dark: brown ; face pale; with black touches and eye patches; bil] and 
claws blackish. Ear tufts of 8-12 feathers. Length, 14-15; wing, 11-12; tail, 5-6. 
Habitat, Temperate North America at large. 
