_Strix nebulosa_, FORST. Phil. Trans. XXII, 386 & 424, 1772.—GMEL.
Syst. Nat. p. 291, 1789.—LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 58, 1790; Syn. I, 133;
Gen. Hist. I, 338.—DAUD. Tr. Orn. II, 191, 1800.—SHAW, Zoöl. VII,
245, 1839; Nat. Misc. pl. xxv.—VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. pl. xvii, 1807;
Nouv. Dict. Hist. Nat. VII, 32; Enc. Méth. III, 1292.—AUD. Birds Am.
pl. xlvi, 1831; Orn. Biog. I, 242.—TEMM. Man. Orn. pt. i, p. 88; pt.
iii, p. 47.—WERN. Atl. Ois. Eur.—MEYER, Taschenb. Deutsch Vogelk. III,
21; Zusätze, p. 21.—WILS. Am. Orn. pl. xxxiii, f. 2, 1808.—RICH. &
SWAINS. F. B. A. II, 81.—BONAP. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. II, 38; Isis, 1832,
p. 1140.—JARD. (WILS.) Am. Orn. II, 57, 1832. _Ulula nebulosa_,
STEPH. Zoöl. XIII, pl. ii, p. 60, 1815.—CUV. Reg. An. (ed. 2), I,
342, 1829.—JAMES. (WILS.) Am. Orn. I, 107, 1831; IV, 280.—BONAPARTE,
List, page 7, 1838; Conspectus Avium, p. 53.—GOULD, Birds Eur. pl.
xlvi.—LESS. Man. Orn. I, 113, 1828; Tr. Orn. p. 108.—GRAY, Gen. B.
fol. (ed. 2), p. 8, 1844.—DE KAY, Zoöl. N. Y. II, 29, pl. x, f. 21,
1844. _Syrnium nebulosum_, GRAY, Gen. B. fol. sp. 9, 1844; List Birds
Brit. Mus. p. 104.—CASS. Birds Cal. & Tex. p. 184, 1854; Birds N. Am.
1858, 56.—GIRAUD, Birds Long Island, p. 24, 1844.—WOODH. in Sitgr.
Rept. Expl. Zuñi & Colorad. p. 63, 1853.—BREW. (WILS.) Am. Orn. p.
687, 1852.—KAUP, Monog. Strig. Cont. Orn. 1852, p. 121.—IB. Tr. Zoöl.
Soc. IV, 256.—STRICKL. Orn. Syn. I, 189, 1855.—MAX. Cab. Jour. VI,
1858, 28.—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 330 (Texas, resident).—COUES, Key,
1872, 204.—GRAY, Hand List, I, 48, 1869.
SP. CHAR. _Adult._ Head, neck, breast, back, scapulars, and rump with
broad regular transverse bars of ochraceous-white and deep umber-brown,
the latter color always terminal; on the upper surface the brown
somewhat exceeds the whitish in width, but on the neck and breast the
white rather predominates. The lower third of the breast is somewhat
differently marked from the upper portion, the brown bars being
connected along the shaft of the feather, throwing the white into pairs
of spots on opposite webs. Each feather of the abdomen, sides, flanks,
and lower tail-coverts has a broad medial longitudinal stripe of brown
somewhat deeper in tint than the transverse bars on the upper parts; the
anal region is plain, more ochraceous, white; the legs have numerous,
but rather faint, transverse spots of brown. Ground-color of the
wings and tail brown, like the bars of the back; middle and secondary
wing-coverts with roundish transverse spots of nearly pure white on
lower webs; lesser coverts plain rich brown; secondaries crossed by
six bands of pale grayish-brown, passing into paler on the edge of
each feather,—the last is terminal, passing narrowly into whitish;
primary coverts with four bands of darker ochraceous-brown; primaries
with transverse series of quadrate pale-brown spots on the outer webs
(growing deeper in tint on inner quills), the last terminal; on the
longest are about eight. Tail like the wings, crossed with six or seven
sharply defined bands of pale brown, the last terminal.
Face grayish-white, with concentric semicircular bars of brown; eyebrows
and lores with black shafts; a narrow crescent of black against anterior
angle of the eye. Facial circle of blackish-brown and creamy-white bars,
the former prevailing along the anterior edge, the latter more distinct
posteriorly, and prevailing across the neck in front, where the brown
forms disconnected transverse spots.
♀ (752, Carlisle, Penn.). Wing-formula, 4–3, 5–2, 6; 1=9. Wing, 13.00;
tail, 9.00; culmen, 1.05; tarsus, 1.90; middle toe, 1.50.
♂. A little smaller. (No specimen marked ♂ in the collection.)
_Hab._ Eastern North America, west to the Missouri; Rio Grande region.
A female (?) from Calais, Me., (4,966; G. A. Boardman,) is somewhat
lighter-colored than the type, owing to the clearer white of the bars.
It measures, wing, 13.50; tail, 9.80.
A specimen (4,357, January) from Washington, D. C., is quite remarkable
for the very dark tints of plumage and the unusual prevalence of the
brown; this is of a more reddish cast than in all other specimens,
becoming somewhat blackish on the head and neck; anteriorly it prevails
so as to almost completely hide the pale bars of the back and nape.
The tail has no bars except three or four very obsolete ones near the
end; beneath, the ochraceous tinge is quite deep. The toes, except
their first joint, are perfectly naked; the middle one, however, has a
narrow strip of feathering running along the outer side as far as the
last joint. The darker shades of color, and more naked toes, seem to be
distinguishing features of southern examples.
[Illustration: _Syrnium nebulosum._]
HABITS. The Barred Owl has an extended range, having been met with
nearly throughout North America, from about latitude 50° to Texas.
Minnesota is the most western point to which, so far as I am aware,
it has been traced. It is more abundant in the Southern States than
elsewhere, and in the more northern portions of North America is
somewhat rare. Richardson did not encounter it in the more arctic
portion of the fur countries, nor has it, so far as I can learn, been
observed on the Pacific coast. It is said to be of accidental occurrence
in northern Europe.
In Louisiana, as Mr. Audubon states, it is more abundant than anywhere
else; and Dr. Woodhouse speaks of it as very common in the Indian
Territories, and also in Texas and New Mexico, especially in the
timbered lands bordering the streams and ponds of that region. In July,
1846, while in pursuit of shore birds in the island of Muskeget, near
Nantucket, in the middle of a bright day, I was surprised by meeting one
of these birds, which, uninvited, joined us in the hunt, and when shot
proved to be a fine male adult specimen.
The Barred Owl was found in great abundance in Florida by Mr. J. A.
Allen, the only species of Owl at all common, and where its ludicrous
notes were heard at night everywhere, and even occasionally in the
daytime. At night they not unfrequently startle the traveller by their
strange utterances from the trees directly over his head.
Mr. Dresser speaks of it as very abundant at all seasons of the year in
the wooded parts of Texas. He was not able to find its nest, but was
told by the hunters that they build in hollow trees, near the banks of
the rivers.
According to Mr. Downes, this Owl is common throughout Nova Scotia,
where it is resident, and never leaves its particular neighborhood.
It breeds in the woods throughout all parts of that colony, and was
observed by him to feed on hares, spruce and ruffed grouse, and other
birds. It is said to be a quite common event for this bird to make its
appearance at midnight about the camp-fires of the moose-hunter and
the lumberer, and to disturb their slumbers with its cries, as with a
demoniacal expression it peers into the glare of the embers. Distending
its throat and pushing its head forward, it gives utterance to unearthly
sounds that to the superstitious are quite appalling.
Mr. Wilson regarded this species as one of the most common of the Owls
in the lower parts of Pennsylvania, where it was particularly numerous
in winter, among the woods that border the extensive meadows of the
Schuylkill and the Delaware River. He frequently observed it flying
during the day, when it seemed to be able to see quite distinctly. He
met with more than forty of these birds in one spring, either flying
or sitting exposed in the daytime, and once discovered one of its
nests situated in the crotch of a white oak, among thick foliage, and
containing three young. It was rudely put together, made outwardly
of sticks, intermixed with dry grasses and leaves, and lined with
smaller twigs. He adds that this Owl screams in the day in the manner
of a Hawk. Nuttall characterizes their peculiar hooting as a loud
guttural call, which he expresses by _’koh-’koh-’ko-’ko-’ho_, or as
_’whah-’whah-’whah-’whah-aa_, heard occasionally both by day and by
night. It is a note of recognition, and may be easily imitated, and can
be used as a means to decoy the birds. Nuttall received a specimen that
had been shot in November, hovering, in the daytime, over a covey of
Quail.
Mr. Audubon speaks of the peculiar hooting cries of this species as
strangely ludicrous in sound, and as suggestive of an affected burst of
laughter. He adds that he has frequently seen this nocturnal marauder
alight within a few yards of his camp-fire, exposing its whole body to
the glare of the light, and eying him in a very curious manner, and
with a noticeable liveliness and oddness of motion. In Louisiana, where
he found them more abundant than anywhere else, Mr. Audubon states
that, should the weather be lowering, and indicative of the approach of
rain, their cries are so multiplied during the day, and especially in
the evening, and they respond to each other in tones so strange, that
one might imagine some extraordinary _fête_ was about to take place
among them. At this time their gesticulations are said to be of a very
extraordinary nature.
The flight of this Owl is described as remarkably smooth, light,
noiseless, and capable of being greatly protracted. So very lightly
do they fly, that Mr. Audubon states he has frequently discovered one
passing over him, and only a few yards distant, by first seeing its
shadow on the ground, in the bright moonlight, when not the faintest
rustling of its wings could be heard.
This Owl has the reputation of being very destructive to poultry,
especially to half-grown chickens. In Louisiana they are said to nest in
March, laying their eggs about the middle of the month. Audubon states
that they nest in hollow trees on the dust of the decomposed wood, and
at other times take possession of the deserted nest of a crow, or of a
Red-tailed Hawk. In New England I think they construct their own nest.
Mr. William Street, of Easthampton, Mass., has twice found the nest of
this Owl. On one occasion it had young, unfledged. Upon returning to get
them, a few days later, they had disappeared, and as he conjectures, had
been removed by their parents. Another time he found a nest in a lofty
pine, and at a height of sixty feet. He saw and shot the old bird. He
has often found them hiding themselves by day in a thick hemlock. In
the winter of 1869, Mr. Street witnessed a singular contest between a
Barred Owl and a Goshawk over a Grouse which the latter had killed, but
of which the Owl contested the possession. The Hawk had decidedly the
advantage in the fight, when the contest was arrested by shooting the
Owl. He has noticed a pair of Barred Owls in his neighborhood for the
past four years, and has never known them to hoot from the time they
have reared their young to the 14th of February. They then begin about
an hour after dark, and their hooting continues to increase until about
the 8th of April, when they mate, at which time their hooting may be
heard both day and night. There is a very great difference observable
between the cries of the female and the utterances of the male. The
latter seldom hoots, and there is as much difference between his voice
and that of the female as between the crowing of a young bird and of the
old cock.
In two instances I have known well-developed eggs of this Owl taken from
the oviduct of the female in February. One of these cases occurred near
Niagara Falls in the spring of 1852. The other, in 1854, was noticed by
Professor William Hopkins, then of Auburn, N. Y., to whose kindness I
was indebted for the egg the parentage of which is so unquestionable.
It is purely white, almost globular, and, except in shape, hardly
distinguishable from the egg of the domestic Hen. It is 2.00 inches in
length, and 1.69 in breadth.
Syrnium occidentale, XANTUS.