FOREST BIRDS 149 



may class him with the "Home Birds"; while the 

 Short-eared Owl belongs among the "Field Birds," 

 leaving the remaining five among the "Forest Birds." 



Great Horned Owl 



They are not numerous, these soft-feathered lov- 

 ers of darkness, and might forever be strangers to 

 those who did not seek them, were it not for their 

 voices. How the deep, sonorous notes of the Great 

 Horned Owl echo through the stillness of the night ! 

 Under favorable conditions I have heard birds call- 

 ing which were not less than half a mile away. 

 "Whoo, hoo-hoo-hoo, whooo, whooo," he cries, all 

 on the same note, and in a tone which reminds one 

 of a bass-voiced dog barking in the distance. I won- 

 der do the birds and animals on which the Great 

 Horned Owl preys recognize in the ominous tones 

 the voice of their natural enemy? 



The ferocious, untamable nature of the Great 

 Horned Owl has won for it the name of "tiger 

 among birds." Sometimes it calls a wild, piercing 

 scream which suggests the voice of an animal rather 

 than that of a bird. I was in the heart of the Adiron- 

 dacks on my first camping trip, when a Great Horned 

 Owl on a mountainside across the lake uttered this 

 blood-curdling cry. "Panther?" I gasped to my 

 guide. "No, Hoot Owl," he replied. 



