Part 4

Mr. Audubon met with a nest of this Owl on one of the mountain ridges in the great pine forest of Pennsylvania, containing four eggs nearly ready to be hatched. They were bluish-white, of an elongated form, and measured 1.50 inches in length and 1.12 in breadth. The nest, made in a slovenly manner with dry grasses, was under a low bush, and covered over with tall grass, through which the bird had made a path. The parent bird betrayed her presence by making a clicking noise with her bill as he passed by; and he nearly put his hand on her before she would move, and then she hopped away, and would not fly, returning to her nest as soon as he left the spot. The pellets disgorged by the Owl, and found near her nest, were found to consist of the bones of small quadrupeds mixed with hair, and the wings of several kinds of coleopterous insects.

This bird was found breeding near the coast of New Jersey by Mr. Krider; and at Hamilton, Canada, on the western shore of Lake Ontario; Mr. McIlwraith speaks of its being more common than any other Owl.

A nest found by Mr. Cabot was in the midst of a dry peaty bog. It was built on the ground, in a very slovenly manner, of small sticks and a few feathers, and presented hardly any excavation. It contained four eggs on the point of being hatched. A young bird the size of a Robin was also found lying dead on a tussock of grass in another similar locality.

The notes of Mr. MacFarlane supply memoranda of twelve nests found by him in the Anderson River country. They were all placed on the ground, in various situations. One was in a small clump of dwarf willows, on the ground, and composed of a few decayed leaves. Another nest was in a very small hole, lined with a little hay and some decayed leaves. This was on a barren plain of some extent, fifty miles east of Fort Anderson, and on the edge of the wooded country. A third was in a clump of Labrador Tea, and was similar to the preceding, except that the nest contained a few feathers. This nest contained seven eggs,—the largest number found, and only in this case. A fourth was in an artificial depression, evidently scratched out by the parent bird. Feathers seem to have been noticed in about half the nests, and in all cases to have been taken by the parent from her own breast. Nearly all the nests were in depressions made for the purpose.

Mr. Dall noticed the Short-eared Owl on the Yukon and at Nulato, and Mr. Bannister observed it at St. Michael’s, where it was a not unfrequent visitor. In his recent Notes on the Avi-fauna of the Aleutian Islands, (Pr. Cal. Academy, 1873,) Dall informs us that it is resident on Unalashka, and that it excavates a hole horizontally for its nesting-place,—usually to a distance of about two feet, the farther end a little the higher. The extremity is lined with dry grass and feathers. As there are no trees in the island, the bird was often seen sitting on the ground, near the mouth of its burrow, even in the daytime. Mr. Ridgway found this bird in winter in California, but never met with it at any season in the interior, where the _O. wilsonianus_ was so abundant.

The eggs of this Owl are of a uniform dull white color, which in the unblown egg is said to have a bluish tinge; they are in form an elliptical ovoid. The eggs obtained by Mr. Cabot measured 1.56 inches in length and 1.25 in breadth. The smallest egg collected by Mr. MacFarlane measured 1.50 by 1.22 inches. The largest taken by Mr. B. R. Ross, at Fort Simpson, measures 1.60 by 1.30 inches; their average measurement is 1.57 by 1.28 inches. An egg of the European bird measures 1.55 by 1.30 inches.

GENUS SYRNIUM, SAVIGNY.

_Syrnium_, SAVIGNY, Nat. Hist. Egypt, I, 112; 1809. (Type, _Strix aluco_, L.) _Scotiaptex_, SWAINS., Classif. B. II, 1837, p. 216. (Type, _Strix cinerea_, GMEL.) _? Ciccaba_, WAGL. Isis, 1831. (Type, _Strix huhula_, DAUD.) _? Pulsatrix_, KAUP, 1849. (_Strix torquatus_, DAUD.)

GEN. CHAR. Size varying from medium to very large. No ear-tufts. Head very large, the eyes comparatively small. Four to six outer primaries with their inner webs sinuated. Tarsi and upper portion, or the whole of the toes, densely clothed with hair-like feathers. Tail considerably more than half as long as the wing, decidedly rounded. Ear-orifice very high, but not so high as the skull, and furnished with an anterior operculum, which does not usually extend along the full length; the two ears asymmetrical. Bill yellow.

Subgenera.

=Scotiaptex.= Six outer quills with their inner webs emarginated. Toes completely concealed by dense long hair-like feathers. Iris yellow. (Type, _S. cinereum_.)

=Syrnium=, SWAINSON. Five outer quills with their inner webs emarginated. Toes not completely concealed by feathers; sometimes nearly naked; terminal scutellæ always (?) exposed. Iris blackish. (Type, _S. aluco_.)

The typical species of this genus are confined to the Northern Hemisphere. It is yet doubtful whether the Tropical American species usually referred to this genus really belong here. The genera _Ciccaba_, Wagl., and _Pulsatrix_, Kaup, have been instituted to include most of them; but whether these are generically or only subgenerically distinct from the typical species of _Syrnium_ remains to be decided.

Our _S. nebulosum_ and _S. occidentale_ seem to be strictly congeneric with the _S. aluca_, the type of the subgenus _Syrnium_, since they agree in the minutest particulars in regard to their external form, and other characters not specific.

Species and Varieties.

_a._ _Scotiaptex_, SWAINS.

1. =S. cinereum.= Iris yellow; bill yellow. Dusky grayish-brown and grayish-white, the former prevailing above, the latter predominating beneath. The upper surface with mottlings of a transverse tendency; the lower surface with the markings in the form of ragged longitudinal stripes, which are transformed into transverse bars on the flanks, etc. Face grayish-white, with concentric rings of dusky. Wing, 16.00–18.00; tail, 11.00–12.50.

Dark markings predominating. _Hab._ Northern portions of the Nearctic Realm …

var. _cinereum_.

Light markings predominating. _Hab._ Northern portions of the Palæarctic Realm …

var. _lapponicum_.

_b._ _Syrnium_, SAV.

COMMON CHARACTERS. Liver-brown or umber, variously spotted and barred with whitish or ochraceous. Bill yellow; iris brownish-black.

2. =S. nebulosum.= Lower parts striped longitudinally. Head and neck with transverse bars.

Colors reddish-umber and ochraceous-white. Face with obscure concentric rings of darker. Wing, 13.00–14.00; tail, 9.00–10.00. _Hab._ Eastern region of United States …

var. _nebulosum_.

Colors blackish-sepia and clear white. Face without any darker concentric rings. Wing, 14.80; tail, 9.00. _Hab._ Eastern Mexico (Mirador) …

var. _sartorii_.[21]

Colors tawny-brown and bright fulvous. Face without darker concentric rings (?). Wing, 12.50, 12.75; tail, 7.30, 8.50. _Hab._ Guatemala …

var. _fulvescens_.[22]

3. =S. occidentale.= Lower parts transversely barred. Head and neck with roundish spots. Wing, 12.00–13.10; tail, 9.00. _Hab._ Southern California (Fort Tejon, XANTUS) and Arizona (Tucson, Nov. 7, BENDIRE).

Syrnium (Scotiaptex) cinereum, AUDUBON.

GREAT GRAY OWL.

_Strix cinerea_, GMEL. Syst. Nat. p. 291, 1788.—LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 58, 1790; Syn. I, 134; Supp. I, 45; Gen. Hist. I, 337.—VIEILL. Nouv. Dict. Hist. Nat. VII, 23, 1816; Enc. Méth. III, 1289; Ois. Am. Sept. I, 48.—RICH. & SWAINS. F. B. A. II, pl. xxxi, 1831.—BONAP. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. II, 436; Isis, 1832, p. 1140.—AUD. Birds Am. pl. cccli, 1831; Orn. Biog. IV, 364.—NUTT. Man. p. 128.—TYZENHAUZ, Rev. Zoöl. 1851, p. 571. _Syrnium cinereum_, AUD. Synop. p. 26, 1839.—CASS. Birds Cal. & Tex. p. 184, 1854; Birds N. Am. 1858, p. 56.—BREW. (WILS.) Am. Orn. p. 687.—DE KAY, Zoöl. N. Y. II, 26, pl. xiii, f. 29, 1844.—STRICKL. Orn. Syn. I, 188, 1855.—NEWB. P. R. R. Rept. VI, IV, 77, 1857.—COOP. & SUCK. P. R. R. Rept. XII, II, 156, 1860.—KAUP, Tr. Zoöl. Soc. IV, 1859, 256.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Chicago Acad. I, 1869, 173.—GRAY, Hand List, I, 48, 1869.—MAYNARD, Birds Eastern Mass., 1870, 130.—_Scotiaptex cinerea_, SWAINS. Classif. Birds, II, 217, 1837. _Syrnium lapponicum_, var. _cinereum_, COUES, Key, 1872, 204. _Strix acclamator_, BART. Trans. 285, 1792.

SP. CHAR. _Adult._ Ground-color of the upper surface dark vandyke-brown, but this relieved by a transverse mottling (on the edges of the feathers) of white, the medial portions of the feathers being scarcely variegated, causing an appearance of obsolete longitudinal dark stripes, these most conspicuous on the scapulars and back. The anterior portions above are more regularly barred transversely; the white bars interrupted, however, by the brown medial stripe. On the rump and upper tail-coverts the mottling is more profuse, causing a grayish appearance. On the wing-coverts the outer webs are most variegated by the white mottling. The alula and primary coverts have very obsolete bands of paler; the secondaries are crossed by nine (last terminal, and three concealed by coverts) bands of pale grayish-brown, inclining to white at the borders of the spots; primaries crossed by nine transverse series of quadrate spots of mottled pale brownish-gray on the outer webs, those beyond the emargination obscure,—the terminal crescentic bar distinct, however; upper secondaries and middle tail-feathers with coarse transverse mottling, almost forming bars. Tail with about nine paler bands, these merely marked off by parallel, nearly white bars, enclosing a plain grayish-brown, sometimes slightly mottled space, just perceptibly darker than the ground-color; basally the feathers become profusely mottled, so that the bands are confused; the last band is terminal. Beneath with the ground-color grayish-white, each feather of the neck, breast, and abdomen with a broad, longitudinal ragged stripe of dark brown, like the ground-color of the upper parts; sides, flanks, crissum, and lower tail-coverts with regular transverse narrow bands; legs with finer, more irregular, transverse bars of dusky. “Eyebrows,” lores, and chin grayish-white, a dusky space at anterior angle of the eye; face grayish-white, with distinct concentric semicircles of blackish-brown; facial circle dark brown, becoming white across the foreneck, where it is divided medially by a spot of brownish-black, covering the throat.

♂ (32,306, Moose Factory, Hudson Bay Territory; J. McKenzie). Wing-formula, 4=5, 3, 6–2, 7–8–9, 1. Wing, 16.00; tail, 11.00; culmen, 1.00; tarsus, 2.30; middle toe, 1.50.

♀ (54,358, Nulato, R. Am., April 11, 1868; W. H. Dall). Wing-formula, 4=5, 3, 6–2, 7–8–9, 1. Wing, 18.00; tail, 12.50; culmen, 1.00; tarsus, 2.20; middle toe, 1.70.

HAB. Arctic America (resident in Canada?). In winter extending into northern borders of United States (Massachusetts, MAYNARD).

The relationship between the _Syrnium cinereum_ and the _S. lapponicum_ is exactly parallel to that between the _Otus vulgaris_, var. _wilsonianus_, and var. _vulgaris_, _Surnia ulula_, var. _hudsonia_, and the var. _ulula_, and _Nyctale tengmalmi_, var. _richardsoni_, and the var. _tengmalmi_. In conformity to the general rule among the species which belong to the two continents, the American race of the present bird is very decidedly darker than the European one, which has the whitish mottling much more prevalent, giving the plumage a lighter and more grayish aspect. The white predominates on the outer webs of the scapulars. On the head and neck the white equals the dusky in extent, while on the lower parts it largely prevails. The longitudinal stripes of the dorsal region are much more conspicuous in _lapponicum_ than in _cinereum_.

A specimen in the Schlütter collection, labelled as from “Nord-Europa,” is not distinguishable from North American examples, and is so very unlike the usual Lapland style that we doubt its being a European specimen at all.

HABITS. The Great Gray or Cinereous Owl appears to be confined to the more northern portions of North America. It is rarely met with in any part of the United States, and only in winter, with the exception of Washington Territory, where it is presumed to be a resident. It is also said to be a resident in Canada, and to be found in the vicinity of Montreal. Mr. Lawrence does not include this bird in his list of the birds of New York, but Mr. Turnbull states that several have been taken as far south as New Jersey. Throughout New England it is occasional in the winter, but comparatively rare. Mr. Allen did not hear of any having been taken near Springfield. On the coast of Massachusetts they are of infrequent occurrence, and are held at high prices. A fine specimen was shot in Lynn in the winter of 1872, and is now in the collection of my nephew, W. S. Brewer. On the Pacific coast it is resident as far south as the mouth of the Columbia, and is found in winter in Northern California.

Dr. Richardson met with this Owl in the fur regions, where it seemed to be by no means rare. He mentions it as an inhabitant of all the wooded districts which lie between Lake Superior and latitude 67° and 68°, and between Hudson’s Bay and the Pacific. It was common on the borders of Great Bear Lake, in which region, as well as in a higher parallel of latitude, it pursues its prey during the summer months by daylight. It was observed to keep constantly within the woods, and was not seen to frequent the barren grounds, in the manner of the Snowy Owl, nor was it so often met with in broad daylight as the Hawk Owl, apparently preferring to hunt when the sun was low and the recesses of the woods deeply shadowed, when the hares and other smaller quadrupeds, upon which it chiefly feeds, were most abundant.

On the 23d of May, Dr. Richardson discovered a nest of this Owl, built on the top of a lofty balsam-poplar, composed of sticks, with a lining of feathers. It contained three young birds, covered with a whitish down, to secure which it was necessary to cut down the tree. While this was going on, the parent birds flew in circles around the tree, keeping out of gun-shot, and apparently undisturbed by the light. The young birds were kept alive for several weeks, but finally escaped. They had the habit, when any one entered the room in which they were kept, of throwing themselves back and making a loud snapping noise with their bills.

In February, 1831, as Audubon was informed, a fine specimen of one of these Owls was taken alive in Marblehead, Mass., having been seen perched upon a woodpile early in the morning. It was obtained by Mr. Ives, of Salem, by whom it was kept several months. It was fed on fish and small birds, and ate its food readily. It would at times utter a tremulous cry, not unlike that of the common Screech-Owl (_Scops asio_), and manifested the greatest antipathy to cats and dogs.

Dr. Cooper found this bird near the mouth of the Columbia River, in a brackish meadow partially covered with small spruce-trees, where they sat concealed during the day, or made short flights from one to another. Dr. Cooper procured a specimen there in June, and has no doubt that the bird is resident and breeds in that neighborhood. He regards it as somewhat diurnal in its habits, and states that it is especially active toward sunset.

Dr. Newberry speaks of this Owl as one generally distributed over the western part of the continent, he having met with it in the Sacramento Valley, in the Cascade Mountains, in the Des Chutes Basin, and in Oregon, on the Columbia River. Mr. Robert MacFarlane found it in great abundance in the Anderson River region. On the 19th of July, as we find in one of his memoranda, he met with a nest of this species near Lockhart River, on the route to Fort Good Hope. The nest was on the top of a pine-tree, twenty feet from the ground. It contained two eggs and two young, both of which were dead. The nest was composed of sticks and mosses, and was lined thinly with down. The female was sitting on the nest, but left it at his approach, and flew to a tree at some distance, where she was shot.

Mr. Donald Gunn writes that the Cinereous Owl is to be found both in summer and in winter throughout all the country commonly known as the Hudson Bay Territory. He states that it hunts by night, preys upon rabbits and mice, and nests in tall poplar-trees, usually quite early in the season.

A single specimen of this Owl was taken at Sitka by Bischoff, and on the 20th of April Mr. Dall obtained a female that had been shot at Takitesky, about twenty miles east of the Yukon, near Nulato. He subsequently obtained several specimens in that region. Mr. Dall describes it as very stupid, and easy to be caught by the hand during the daytime. From its awkward motions its Indian name of _nūhl-tūhl_, signifying “heavy walker,” is derived. So far as observed by Mr. Dall, this Owl appeared to feed principally upon small birds, and he took no less than thirteen crania and other remains of _Ægiothus linaria_ from the crop of a single bird.

Specimens of this Owl have also been received by the Smithsonian Institution, collected by Mr. Kennicott, from Fort Yukon and from Nulato; from Mr. J. McKenzie, Moose Factory; from J. Lockhart, obtained at Fort Resolution and at Fort Yukon; from J. Flett, at La Pierre House; from B. R. Ross, at Big Island; and from Mr. S. Jones and Mr. J. McDougall, at Fort Yukon. These were all taken between February 11 and July 19.

One of the eggs of this Owl, referred to above in Mr. MacFarlane’s note, is in my cabinet. It is small for the size of the bird, and is of a dull soiled-white color, oblong in shape, and decidedly more pointed at one end than at the other. It measures 2.25 inches in length by 1.78 in breadth. The drawing of an egg of this species, made by Mr. Audubon from a supposed specimen of an egg of this species, referred to in the “North American Oölogy,” and which measured 2.44 by 2.00 inches, was probably a sketch of the egg of the Snowy Owl.

Syrnium nebulosum, GRAY.

BARRED OWL; “HOOT OWL.”

_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.

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.