Head moderate, furnished with erectile ear-tufts, varying in size in
different species; bill rather short, nearly concealed by projecting
bristle-like feathers, curved from the base; facial disc more perfect
than in the two preceding genera; wings rather long, with the second and
third quills longest; tail moderate; legs long; tarsi and toes densely
covered with feathers; claws long, curved, very acute; eyes rather
small, and surrounded by radiating feathers; facial disc nearly perfect.
Contains about ten species of various parts of the world.
1. Otus Wilsonianus. Lesson, Traité d’Orn., I. p. 110. (1831.) The
long-eared Owl.
Otus americanus. Bonap., Comp. List., p. 7. (1838.)
Strix americana. Gm., Syst. Nat., I. p. 288. (1788)? Bonap., Cons.
Av., p. 50.
Strix peregrinator. Bartram, Trav., p. 289. (1790)?
Wilson, Am. Orn., VI. pl. 51, fig. 1. Aud., B. of Am., pl. 383, octavo
ed., I. pl. 37. Nat. Hist. N. Y., pl. 11, fig. 24.
Ear-tufts long and conspicuous; wings long; tarsi and toes densely
feathered. Adult. Entire plumage above mottled with very dark brown
(nearly black), ashy-white and fulvous, the former color, brown,
predominating; breast pale fulvous, every feather with a wide
longitudinal stripe of brownish-black; abdomen white, every feather
with a wide longitudinal stripe, and with transverse stripes of
brownish-black; legs and toes pale fulvous, usually unspotted, but in
some specimens with irregular transverse narrow stripes of dark brown;
eye nearly encircled with black, radiating feathers of the face in
front of the eye ashy-white, with minute black lines, behind the eye
deep fulvous, and narrowly tipped with black; throat white; feathers
of the disc tipped with black; ear-tufts brownish-black, edged with
ashy-white and fulvous; quills pale fulvous at their bases, with
irregular transverse bands of brown, terminating portions brown, with
yellowish, ashy, irregular bands, which are mottled with brown;
inferior coverts of the wings pale fulvous, in some specimens nearly
white, the larger inferior coverts widely tipped with brownish-black,
forming a conspicuous transverse band on the under surface of the
wing; tail brown, with several irregular transverse bands of ashy
fulvous, which bands are mottled as on the quills; bill and claws
dark; irides yellow. Sexes probably alike at the same ages.
Dimensions. _Female._—Total length, about 15 inches; wing, 11½; tail,
6 inches. _Male._—Smaller.
Hab. Northern and Eastern North America. Breeds in Pennsylvania.
Hudson’s Bay (Richardson and Swainson); Canada (Dr. Hall); Oregon (Dr.
Townsend); Washington Territory (Dr. Cooper); Nebraska (Dr. Suckley);
Massachusetts (Dr. Emmons); Long Island (Mr. Giraud).
Obs. This is one of the commonest species of Owls in the Northern and
Eastern States on the Atlantic. It much resembles the European _Otus
vulgaris_, with which American authors have generally considered it
identical, but it is larger and darker colored. It is a shy and secluded
species, seldom venturing far from the woods, and appears to be a
constant resident in the middle and northern States.
2. Otus brachyotus. (Forster.) The Short-eared Owl. The Marsh Owl.
Strix brachyotos. Forster, Philos. Trans. London, LXII. p. 384.
(1772.)
Brachyotus palustris americanus. Bonap., Cons. Av., p. 51. (1849.)
Otus galapagoensis. Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1837, p. 10?
Wilson, Am. Orn., IV. pl. 33, fig. 3. Aud., B. of Am., pl. 410; Oct.
ed., I. pl. 38. Nat. Hist. N. Y. Birds, pl. 12, fig. 27.
Ear-tufts very short and inconspicuous; bill short, curved, nearly
concealed by projecting feathers; wings rather long, second quill
longest; tail moderate; tarsi and toes densely feathered. Adult.
Entire plumage buff or pale fulvous, every feather with a wide central
longitudinal stripe of dark brown; under parts pale buff color,
striped longitudinally with brown, more sparingly on the flanks and
abdomen; legs and toes buff, usually of a deeper shade than the under
parts of the body; wing-coverts and secondary quills brown, with large
ovate or circular spots of pale reddish fulvous on their outer-webs;
primaries pale reddish fulvous at their bases, brown at their ends,
with wide irregular bars, and large spots of reddish fulvous; tail
pale fulvous, with about five irregular transverse bands of brown,
which color predominates on the two central feathers; outermost
feathers palest; under tail-coverts nearly pure white; throat white;
eyes surrounded by large black spots; radiating feathers in front of
the eyes white, behind the eyes fulvous, with delicate lines of black
on the shafts of the feathers; ear-tufts brown, widely edged with pale
fulvous; bill and claws dark; irides yellow. Sexes alike.
Dimensions. _Female._—Total length, about 15 inches; wing, 12; tail, 6
inches. _Male._—Smaller.
Hab. The whole of North America and Western South America. Greenland
(Prof. Holboll); Canada (Dr. Hall); Washington Territory (Dr. Cooper);
California (Dr. Heermann); Chili (Lieut. Gillis); Bermuda (Sir W.
Jardine); Cuba (Mr. Lembeye).
Obs. This Owl is of frequent occurrence, especially in the winter
season, throughout the Eastern States of the Union, and appears to
prefer meadows and marshes along the course of rivers or other streams
of water. We have met with it, too, occasionally in straggling bushes in
fields remote from such localities.
This bird has been almost universally considered identical with the bird
known by the same name, which is found throughout Europe and Asia; but
it is nearly or quite as distinct as some other American birds of this
family recognised on all hands as separate species. On comparison of
series of specimens of the two, it will be found that the American are
larger, and for much the greater part darker colored, especially the
females. The name _brachyotus_ is, however, applicable to the American
species only, having been first applied by Forster to an American
specimen in his “Account of the Birds sent from Hudson’s Bay, with
observations relative to their Natural History,” in the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society, London, 1772.
We have had no facilities for comparing the stages of plumage of the
young of the American and European or Asiatic species, but have no doubt
they will be found to present sufficient distinctive characters. We have
omitted the many synonymes of the European bird, for reasons above
intimated.
_Otus galapagoensis_, Gould, is scarcely to be distinguished from our
present bird. Admitting the genus _Brachyotus_, Gould, we think it very
probable that the name of the present species ought to stand _Brachyotus
galapagoensis_ (Gould).
Very fine specimens of this Owl are contained in the large and highly
interesting collection of birds made in Chili, by Lieut. Gilliss, of the
United States Navy. It appears to inhabit the plains on the Pacific, and
nearly all the specimens are of a deeper shade of fulvous than is
usually met with in those of the North, though we have seen specimens of
the latter precisely similar to them.