The Short-eared Owl is found throughout the Argentine country, where it is commonly called Lechuzon (big Owl) in the vernacular. Like the species last described—the Barn-Owl—it has an exceedingly wide range. It is found throughout the continent of Europe; it also inhabits Asia and Africa, many of the Pacific Islands, and both Americas, from Canada down to the Straits of Magellan. Such a very wide distribution would seem to indicate that it possesses some advantage over its congeners, and is (as an Owl) more perfect than others. It is rather more diurnal in its habits than most Owls, and differs structurally from other members of its order in having a much smaller head. It is also usually said to be a weak flier; but this I am sure is a great mistake, for it seems to me the strongest flier amongst Owls, and very migratory in its habits, or, at any rate, very much given to wandering. Probably its very extensive distribution is due in some measure to a greater adaptability than is possessed by most species; also to its better sight in the daytime, and to its wandering disposition, which enables it to escape a threatened famine, and to seize on unoccupied or favourable ground.
The bird loves an open country, and sits by day on the ground concealed amongst the herbage or tall grass. An hour before sunset it [quits] its hiding-place, and is seen perched on a bush or tall stalk, or sailing about a few feet above the ground with a singularly slow, heron-like flight; and at intervals while flying it smites its wings together under its breast in a quick sudden manner. It is not at all shy, the intrusion of a man or dog in the field it frequents only having the effect of exciting its indignation. An imitation of its cry will attract all the individuals within hearing about a person, and any loud unusual sound, like the report of a gun, produces the same effect. When alarmed or angry it utters a loud hiss, and at times a shrill laugh-like cry. It also has a dismal scream, not often heard; and at twilight hoots, this part of its vocal performance sounding not unlike the distant baying of a mastiff or a bloodhound. It breeds on the ground, clearing a circular spot, and sometimes, but not often, lining it with a scanty bed of dry grass. The eggs are three or four, white, and nearly spherical.
The Short-eared Owl was formerly common everywhere on the pampas, where the coarse indigenous grasses afforded the shelter and conditions best suited to it. When in time this old rough vegetation gave place to the soft perishable grasses and clovers, accidentally introduced by European settlers, the Owl disappeared from the country, like the large Tinamou (Rhynchotis rufescens), the Red-bellied Finch (Embernagra platensis), and various other species; for the smooth level plains afforded it no shelter. Now, however, with the spread of cultivation, it has reappeared, and is once more becoming a common bird in the more thickly-settled districts.
[288.] BUBO VIRGINIANUS (Gm.).
(VIRGINIAN OWL.)
Bubo virginianus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 116; Scl. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro); White, P. Z. S. 1883, p. 433 (Cordova); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 29 (Gualeguaychú). Bubo crassirostris, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 439 (Mendoza). Bubo magellanicus, d’Orb. Voy. Ois. p. 137; Salv. Ibis, 1880, p. 361 (Salta); Sharpe, Cat. B. ii. p. 29.
Description.—Above dull tawny buff, more or less densely mottled with blackish brown; ear-tufts long, blackish, mixed with tawny buff; wings tawny buff, with about seven blackish cross bands; tail tawny buff, tipped with whitish, and with about seven blackish cross bands: beneath dull ochraceous buff, with dusky brown cross lines; throat-collar whitish: whole length 19·5 inches, wing 14·5, tail 8·5. Female similar, but rather larger.
Hab. North and South America.
This bird, eagle-like in its dimensions, and the largest of our Owls, is found throughout both Americas, though some authors, relying on certain trivial variations in size and colour, have separated the southern from the northern form, and called it Bubo [magellanicus]. In the Argentine Republic it is well known by its Indian name “Ñacurutú”; also in Paraguay according to Azara, who says:—“It pronounces its own name in tones which scare such as pass by night through the deep woods, which are its palaces.”
The habits of the Virginian Owl are too well known to need to be rewritten in this place: the ornithologists of North America have supplied several biographies of it, that by Audubon being specially familiar.