112 BIRDS 



I started to climb. I had hardly touched the tree 

 before the Owl rose from the nest and with much ado, 

 with voice and threatening manner, wheeled about my 

 head for a short time. Then, with a great feigning of 

 complete invalidism, useless wings and legs, she fell to 

 the ground within fifty feet of me and, like a Mourning 

 Dove, proceeded to demonstrate how utterly helpless an 

 incubating Long-eared Owl can become in the face of 

 threatened injury to her home and its contents. 



I climbed to the nest and found six cream-colored 

 eggs, seemingly far advanced in incubation. These I 

 carefully lowered and placed in a Crow's nest that I 

 had secured near by. Then I made several negatives and 

 returned the eggs to their original position. 



The male bird had soon joined the female, but made 

 no move toward assisting her in the protection of their 

 home and its contents. The female repeatedly alighted 

 within a few yards of me, while I was making the pic- 

 tures, each time giving a scolding-like squeal and hiss. 



Three Blue Jays had also put in their appearance 

 (they frequently pry into other birds' affairs). With 

 much enthusiasm and rage they attacked the female 

 and thus added to her troubles, all the while proclaiming 

 the virtues of the Jay family! 



There were a number of Crows' nests in this little 

 body of timber and several Crows were flying about all 

 the time, but they made no move toward an attack on the 

 Owls. 



These Owls lay early enough in the season for their 

 young to be hatched and leave the nest before the Crows 

 begin to lay ; thus a last year 's Crow 's nest may be used 

 as an incubating home for both an Owl and Crow in 

 the same season. Crows frequently repair and use their 

 last year's nests. 



At the end of two weeks I returned and found that 

 all six of the eggs had hatched. The bird's habit of 

 beginning incubation as soon as one egg is laid was beau- 

 tifully illustrated in this instance, as the young varied 

 in size from the oldest, as large as one's fist, to a baby, 

 just hatched, the size of the egg of the Long-eared Owl. 

 I succeeded in getting a picture which shows this varia- 

 tion in size due to stages of incubating. (Fig. 47.) 



