OWL SECRETS 297 



" Hoot Owl," they are entirely distinct. The Barred Owl is 

 a trifle the smaller, lacking the conspicuous ear-tufts or 

 •'horns" of the other, with dark iris instead of yellow, and 

 plumage very differently shaded and marked. Its eggs are 

 laid by, or soon after, the middle of March. Both kinds 

 are quite tenacious of a locality, unless disturbed, but the 

 Barred Owl is, I think, the more so. One can find a pair of 

 them in the same woods year after year, though the nest 

 may have been repeatedly plundered, or one of the birds 

 killed. In the latter case the survivor secures a new mate 

 and maintains the family estate and traditions. 



The Great Horned Owl does not often now, in southern 

 New England, nest in hollow trees, but the Barred Owls 

 prefer such a location, if indeed they can find a hollow large 

 enough in our much-devastated forests. If they cannot, 

 they usually patch up some old affair of hawks' or squirrels' 

 construction, generally in a tall pine in a thick, dark grove. 

 Slovenliness is inbred in owl nature. They do whatever is 

 easiest, and it is easier to lay the eggs in the bottom of a 

 hollow on the soft decayed wood than even to fix up a squir- 

 rels' nest. 



For some years a pair of Barred Owls nested in the cavity 

 of an oak where a branch had been torn oflf only twelve feet 

 from the ground and the wood had rotted out. This was in 

 a strip of mixed woodland, just back of the main street of 

 the pleasant little village of North Middleboro. I used to 

 hear the owls hooting, but somehow could never find their 

 home, though I scoured the whole region. But one bright 

 afternoon, the eleventh of April, as I was up a tall pine 

 examining the nest of a Red-shouldered Hawk, I heard 

 the prolonged hooting of the Barred Owl. Starting in search, 

 I happened to pass the hollow tree, and thoughtlessly gave it 

 a kick. Such a thundering, scrambling, whirring sound issued 



