240 WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



while lumber-jacks in winter always wear woolen 

 caps wliile working, generally they put on fur caps 

 after dark. 



** 'Likely enough/ the cook answered; 'why?' 



*'I did not wish to say why I asked the ques- 

 tion just then, I wanted to make sure. So, that 

 night, I wandered for a while in the woods, from 

 time to time hooting the 'whoo, hoo-hoo-hoo, whoo' 

 of the Great Horned Owl, and, after a while, re- 

 ceiving a reply. It was settled, at least, that there 

 was a Horned Owl in the neighborhood of the 

 camp. 



*'The next question was to find him. 



''Now, Shan, if you want to find a big Owl, it is 

 fairly easy to do so in the twilight, provided you 

 know his habits. Before it gets dark, an Owl, as 

 a rule, will fly up to his favorite perch — ^he rarely 

 has more than two or three chosen spots — and wait 

 for the coming of night. I knew that such a perch 

 was almost sure to be the broken-off stem of a tall 

 dead tree, if there were such in the vicinity of the 

 camp. There were several. 



"I scanned the top of each tree carefully with 

 my big field-glasses, but could see no signs of an 

 Owl, save that the top of one tree did not look 

 quite natural. I could not be sure, however, and 



