BARN-OWL. The barn-owl is a familiar species named by Linmens Stria flammea, and conservative ornithologists regard it. as almost cosmopolitan in its distribution, counting the slight differences observable in those of Africa, tbe Orient, Australia, North and South America, as marking merely geographical races; others, however. prefer to separate these local forms into distinct species, and call that of the Americas Ntrix pratincola. It should further be said that the term barn-owl is most often applied in Great Britain to the related tawny owl (Stria stridala), while the present species is usually called screech-owl. This type of owl is of com paratively small size (length, about 17 inches). and is characterized by the yellowish-red. irregu larly marked plumage of the back, the "silky white to bright tawny" hue of the under surface, dotted with black spots; and particularly by the heart-shaped form of the facial disks, which meet in a point below the beak, and are fringed with bright rust-colo•. The eyes are small and black, the legs long and clothed with short feathers only. Its quaint physiognomy has won for it the name `monkey-faced' in the Southern States Range and Brcedi»g.—This owl is occasion ally seen over most of the United States. hut is most numerous in the southern portion. and thence to Patagonia. It seems to he partly migratory. retreating in winter from its most northerly ranges. In the Old World it breeds mainly in church-towers, ruins, and similar places, and its eerie hoot has contributed much to the poetry and fables connected with its race: but in less civilized, or less ruinous, parts of the world it chooses for a nesting-place a cavity in an old tree, a crevice among rocky crags. or
(as very frequently in the southwestern United States) a niche in some steep earthen hank. Even in the United States, however, it makes its home in belfries and stone buildings when it can. The nest is a led of straw and feathers, and the eggs, four to eight, are white. "This owl," Fisher remarks, "is one of the most distinctively nocturnal of the tribe, hut like all the others it can see perfectly well in the bright est daylight, when. for any reason. it is re quired to leave its retreat. It usually sleeps luring the day. sitting upright in a dark nook or crevice, in the shadow of a bridge. or among the dense foliage of some grove or reedy marsh." Food and Economic Volue.—This species is perhaps the most beneficial of its tribe to the agriculturist. because its food consists almost wholly of the snmIl rodents so injurious to him. Naturalists recognize this in all parts of the world. In the States this owl subsists mainly in the East on rats and wild mice: in the South on the cotton-rat, and certain mice doing great injury there; and in the West on gophers, ground-squirrels, and rabbits, even those so large as the jack-rabbit. Its services in the destruc tion of cotton-rats and pouched gophers alone would entitle it to gratitude and protection. Consult Fisher, Hawks and Owls of the United States (Agric. Dept., Washington, IS93). See and plate of Owls.