MONTANA HORNED OWL 353 



white plumage begins to acquire a brownish tinge, and the owlets 

 begin to snap at intruders, perhaps in imitation of their parents. 

 At this stage the owlets are about the size of pigeons. Pinfeathers 

 appear at edges of wings and tail and grow rapidly, while down still 

 continues over considerable areas. At 20 days of age the color of 

 the iris changes from brown to yellow, getting brighter and clearer 

 day by day; feather marking begins to appear. Ear tufts appear 

 when the birds are 20 or 25 days of age. After this the remaining 

 tufts of white down gradually get soiled, and the general color of the 

 owlet grows buffy on body and wings as more and more feathers 

 develop. Warren (1911) secured an owlet on May 10, 1901, at 

 Paonia, Colo., that was presumably 41 to 45 days old, and says: 

 "It stands about twelve inches high. The body plumage is mostly 

 down, but the wing and tail feathers are well grown, and about half 

 out of their sheaths. The ear tufts usually stand up about one-half 

 inch but sometimes three-quarters of an inch. The feet and legs 

 are thickly covered with a yellowish or light buffy down. The 

 whole of the body down, both above and below, is barred similar to 

 the adult, and is fully two inches thick on the breast. This down is 

 a light yellowish brown, but light gray on the tips. The wing coverts 

 are brownish yellow, with dark, nearly black, bars a quarter of an 

 inch wide. The primaries and secondaries are as dark as the bars 

 of the coverts, with still darker bars. The tail similar. The face 

 markings and feathers are just beginning to show." At two months 

 of age, the young owls are full grown and a trifle lighter in color 

 than adults, perhaps still retaining a few tufts of down on the ends 

 of some of their feathers. Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) 

 weighed "a male and a female from near Termo [northeastern Cali- 

 fornia], October 11 and 12, 1924, at 1160 and 1184 grams, respectively." 



Food.- — About 11 a. m. of a cloudy day, while riding in the Yellow- 

 stone Park, I saw a Montana horned owl fly low across a high moun- 

 tain prairie and finally alight on a sage 2 feet high, hop to one side, 

 catch a ground squirrel, and fly off with it to a nearbj 7 thick grove of 

 lodgepole pine. At other times I have found the remains of snow- 

 shoe rabbits, caught by these owls, on the hot-spring formation at 

 Mammoth. Like other subspecies described, the Montana horned 

 owls eat various kinds of mice, rabbits, rats, skunks, ground squirrels, 

 pocket gophers, prairie dogs, an occasional bird, and unprotected 

 chickens that sleep out. 



Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) record, of the pair taken near 

 Termo, that "the stomach of the male contained one red-shafted 

 flicker and one meadow-mouse. The female had eaten a California 

 jay and a bushy-tailed woodrat." 



Cameron (1907) says: "They were observed to kill half grown tur- 

 keys belonging to J. C. Braley, of Terry, in the summer of 1902. The 



