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.