124 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



or less on cloudy days, especially when it has young in the nest. It cer- 

 tainly can see well enough to fly with ease through the trees in brightest 

 noonday when driven from its diurnal retreats. If they are occupying 

 the old nest of a hawk or crow for breeding purposes, I have usually found 

 that the mother bird will leave the nest quietly while danger is yet far 

 off, and return stealthily when the intruders are past. Even when in 

 hollow trees they will usually act in the same manner after having been 

 driven once or twice from the nest. The home of this owl is in some 

 extensive wooded swamp, or rugged hillside, or deep ravine, but if undis- 

 turbed it will sometimes nest for years in groves or scattered growths of 

 trees near farmhouses or the outskirts of villages. The accompanying 

 photograph is of such a nest near the village of Geneseo. The growing 

 scarcity of hollow trees suitably situated for nesting sites and the almost 

 absolute certainty of the destruction of broods reared in open nests, every- 

 where except in the wildest districts, has been an important factor in the 

 gradual decline of this species in New York, and the eager warfare of 

 sportsmen and farmers has completed the extirpation of all nesting pairs 

 in the thickly settled districts. The general scarcity of this bird and of 

 the Red fox in the country now occupied by the Ring-neck pheasant has 

 undoubtedly helped materially the introduction of that species, as well 

 as the increase of the Cotton-tail rabbit. This owl kills larger prey than 

 any other of our common Raptores, fully equaling the Gyrfalcon in its 

 prowess as a hunter. Many are the full-grown fowls which I have seen 

 dead from his nightly raids, and I once lost a hen turkey that was attacked 

 while brooding her young, and decapitated with ease. This was the work 

 of a large female owl, as was demonstrated by the steel trap set by the 

 carcass on the ensuing night. They also feed on mice and other small 

 quadrupeds, though not always on small ones, for besides rabbits they are 

 fond of muskrats, woodchucks, and especially of skunks. I have frequently 

 examined specimens which had recently partaken of the savory flesh of 

 Mephitis, and have seen the evidences of such feasts in the fields and woods. 

 Mr W. E. Lauderdale has called my attention to their habit of feeding 



