File:The birds of New Jersey (1896) (14748257351).jpg

Identifier: birdsofnewjersey00shri (find matches)
Title: The birds of New Jersey
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Shriner, Charles A. (Charles Anthony), 1853-1945 New Jersey. Board of Fish and Game Commissioners
Subjects: Birds -- New Jersey
Publisher: (Paterson, N.J.) Printed for the Commission
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
isa rare winter visitor. The cry of the bird resembles the filing of a saw, fromwhich fact it has derived its name. Government reports of the examination of 22 stomachsshowed that IT contained mice, 1 a bird, 1 an insect and3 were empty. Owl^ »Scrccf/*.—Length, eight and a half inches; ex-tent, twenty-one inches. There are two phases of thisbird found in New Jersey, the red and gray, but theformer predominates. The bird is easily known by itssmall size and ear tufts; the coloring is not dependenteither upon sex, age or season, both colors frequently oc-curring in the same brood. The general color of the plu-mage of the red phase is a bright tawny red above; theshafts of the feathers are black; exterior edges of thefeathers of the shoulders, white; whole wing quills,spotted with dusky on their exterior webs; tail, rounded,transversely barred with dusky and pale brown; chin,breast and sides, white, streaked with l)lack and more orless mottled with rusty; middle of belly, white; legs,
Text Appearing After Image:
THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 113 feathered to the claws; extremities of the toes and claws,white, pale bluish, ending in black; bill, two-thirds of aninch in length, a pale bluish horn color; eyes, vivid yel-low; head, horned or eared, each horn tuft consisting ofnine or ten feathers, of a tawny red, shafted with black.In the gray phase of the bird the upper parts are gener-ally brownish gray, streaked with l)lack and mottled withbuff; the under parts are white, streaked and irregularlybarred with black, and lianded with brown. In theyoung the entire plumage is barred with grayish, brownand white. The nest is generally built in the hollow of a tree—anold apple tree preferred—and not over ten feet from theground, occasionally in a dove cote, but never in branchesof trees, nor does the l)ird make use of the nests of otherbirds; the nest is a rude affair, made of sticks and leaves,incompletely lined with a few feathers. Mating beginsabout the middle of April. The eggs are from four to si

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