THE BIRD OF NIGHT 



middle of March. Both these hardy birds seem to go 

 more by the calendar than by the weather, and at the 

 regular time they will have their nests and eggs, blow it 

 high or low, and be the temperature as bitter as it may. 

 Some years, as the time came around, amid a succession 

 of blizzards I would say — *' Surely those owls will not 

 be laying now." But they were, none the less. 



Some pairs are earlier or later than others as a regular 

 habit each season, so each owl family has its own 

 schedule and will nest each year at about its own accus- 

 tomed time. One pair of Barred Owls, for instance, I 

 would always find nesting by the middle of March, but 

 in the next township another pair would not complete 

 their set of two or three eggs till about * 'April Fool's 

 Day." 



The way to find the nest of either of these large owls, 

 when one has found out where they usually hoot, is to 

 go in and make a thorough canvass of whatever large 

 timber is there. Generally they will either occupy the 

 old nest of a hawk, crow, or squirrel, which consists 

 of a platform of sticks in the crotch of a tall tree, ever- 

 green or other, or, if there is a large hollow cavity, 

 pretty well up from the ground, they will use that. If 

 the large owl is brooding in the cavity, she will fly out 

 if the tree is rapped. In case the nest is an open one, 

 she will usually fly out when one approaches, though 

 not always, for sometimes she will wait until the tree is 

 thumped, and once I found a Great Horned Owl which 

 would not leave even then, though I could see her great 



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