A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 3. Robert Ridgway
is never met with in wooded or wild regions.
Strix flammea.
Dr. Heermann and Dr. Gambel, who visited California before the present increase in population, speak of its favorite resort as being in the neighborhood of the Missions, and of its nesting under the tiled roofs of the houses. The latter also refers to his finding numbers under one roof, and states that they showed no fear when approached. The propensity of the California bird to drink the sacred oil from the consecrated lamps about the altars of the Missions was frequently referred to by the priests, whenever any allusion was made to this Owl. Dr. Gambel also found it about farm-houses, and occasionally in the prairie valleys, where it obtains an abundance of food, such as mice and other small animals.
Dr. Heermann, in a subsequent visit to the State, mentions it as being a very common bird in all parts of California. They were once quite numerous among the hollow trees in the vicinity of Sacramento, but have gradually disappeared, as their old haunts were one by one destroyed to make way for the gradual development and growth of that city. Dr. Heermann found a large number in the winter, sheltered during the day among the reeds of Suisun Valley. They were still abundant in the old Catholic Missions, where they frequented the ruined walls and towers, and constructed their nests in the crevices and nooks of those once stately buildings, now falling to decay. These ruins were also a shelter for innumerable bats, reptiles, and vermin, which formed an additional attraction to the Owls.
Dr. Cooper speaks of finding this Owl abundant throughout Southern California, especially near the coast, and Dr. Newberry frequently met with it about San Francisco, San Diego, and Monterey, where it was more common than any other species. He met with it on San Pablo Bay, inhabiting holes in the perpendicular cliffs bordering the south shore. It was also found in the Klamath Basin, but not in great numbers.
Mr. J. H. Clark found the Barn Owl nesting, in May, in holes burrowed into the bluff banks of the Rio Frio, in Texas. These burrows were nearly horizontal, with a considerable excavation near the back end, where the eggs were deposited. These were three or four in number, and of a dirty white. The parent bird allowed the eggs to be handled without manifesting any concern. There was no lining or nest whatever. Lieutenant Couch found them common on the Lower Rio Grande, but rare near Monterey, Mexico. They were frequently met with living in the sides of large deep wells.
Dr. Coues speaks of it as a common resident species in Arizona. It was one of the most abundant Owls of the Territory, and was not unfrequently to be observed at midday. On one occasion he found it preying upon Blackbirds, in the middle of a small open reed swamp.
It is not uncommon in the vicinity of Washington, and after the partial destruction of the Smithsonian Building by fire, for one or two years a pair nested in the top of the tower. It is quite probable that the comparative rarity of the species in the Eastern States is owing to their thoughtless destruction, the result of a short-sighted and mistaken prejudice that drives away one of our most useful birds, and one which rarely does any mischief among domesticated birds, but is, on the contrary, most destructive to rats, mice, and other mischievous and injurious vermin.
Mr. Audubon mentions two of these birds which had been kept in confinement in Charleston, S. C., where their cries in the night never failed to attract others of the species. He regards them as altogether crepuscular in habits, and states that when disturbed in broad daylight they always fly in an irregular and bewildered manner. Mr. Audubon also states that so far as his observations go, they feed entirely on small quadrupeds, as he has never found the remains of any feathers or portions of birds in their stomachs or about their nests. In confinement it partakes freely of any kind of flesh.
The Cuban race (var. furcata), also found in other West India islands, is hardly distinguishable from our own bird, and its habits may be presumed to be essentially the same. Mr. Gosse found the breeding-place of the Jamaica Owl at the bottom of a deep limestone pit, in the middle of October; there was one young bird with several eggs. There was not the least vestige of a nest; the bird reposed on a mass of half-digested hair mingled with bones. At a little distance were three eggs, at least six inches apart. On the 12th of the next month he found in the same place the old bird sitting on four eggs, this time placed close together. There was still no nest. The eggs were advanced towards hatching, but in very different degrees, and an egg ready for deposition was found in the oviduct of the old bird.
An egg of this Owl, taken in Louisiana by Dr. Trudeau, measured 1.69 inches in length by 1.38 in breadth. Another, obtained in New Mexico, measures 1.69 by 1.25. Its color is a dirty yellowish-white, its shape an oblong oval, hardly more pointed at the smaller than at the larger end.
An egg from Monterey, California, collected by Dr. Canfield, measures 1.70 inches in length by 1.25 in breadth, of an oblong-oval shape, and nearly equally obtuse at either end. It is of a uniform bluish-white. Another from the Rio Grande is of a soiled or yellowish white, and of the same size and shape.
Genus OTUS, Cuvier
Otus, Cuv. Reg. An. 1799. (Type, Strix otus, Linn.)
Asio, Swains. 1831 (nec Brisson, 1760).
Brachyotus, Gould, P. Z. S. 1837, 10. (Type, Stryx brachyotus.)
Ægolius, Keys. & Bl. 1840 (nec Kaup, 1829).
Char. Size medium. Ear-tufts well developed or rudimentary; head small; eyes small. Cere much arched, its length more than the chord of the culmen. Bill weak, compressed. Only the first, or first and second, outer primary with its inner web emarginated. Tail about half the wing, rounded. Ear-conch very large, gill-like, about as long as the height of the skull, with an anterior operculum, which extends its full length, and bordered posteriorly by a raised membrane; the two ears asymmetrical.
A. Otus, Cuvier. Ear-tufts well developed; outer quill only with inner web emarginated.
Colors blackish-brown and buffy-ochraceous,—the former predominating above, where mottled with whitish; the latter prevailing beneath, and variegated with stripes or bars of dusky. Tail, primaries, and secondaries, transversely barred (obsoletely in O. stygius).
1. O. vulgaris. Ends of primaries normal, broad; toes feathered; face ochraceous.
Dusky of the upper parts in form of longitudinal stripes, contrasting conspicuously with the paler ground-color. Beneath with ochraceous prevalent; the markings in form of longitudinal stripes, with scarcely any transverse bars. Hab. Europe and considerable part of the Old World … var. vulgaris.19
Dusky of the upper parts in form of confused mottling, not contrasting conspicuously with the paler ground-color. Beneath with the ochraceous overlaid by the whitish tips to the feathers; the markings in form of transverse bars, which are broader than the narrow medial streak. Wing, 11.50–12.00; tail, 6.00–6.20; culmen, .65; tarsus, 1.20–1.25; middle toe, 1.15. Wing-formula, 2, 3–4–1. Hab. North America … var. wilsonianus.
2. O. stygius.20 Ends of primaries narrow, that of the first almost falcate; toes entirely naked; face dusky, or with dusky prevailing.
Above blackish-brown, thinly relieved by an irregular sparse spotting of yellowish-white. Beneath with the markings in form of longitudinal stripes, which throw off occasional transverse arms toward the edge of the feathers. Wing, 13.00; tail, 6.80; culmen, .90; tarsus, 1.55; middle toe, 1.50. Wing-formula, 2, 3–4, 1. Hab. South America.
B. Brachyotus, Gould (1837). Similar to Otus, but ear-tufts rudimentary, and the second quill as well as the first with the inner web emarginated.
Colors ochraceous, or white, and clear dark brown, without shadings or middle tints. Beneath with narrow longitudinal dark stripes upon the whitish or ochraceous ground-color; crown and neck longitudinally striped with dark brown and ochraceous.
3. O. brachyotus. Wings and tail nearly equally spotted and banded with ochraceous and dark brown. Tail with about six bands, the ochraceous