WESTERN HORNED OWL 327 



young wild turkeys, even when half grown." E. R. Warren writes us 

 that although cottontails were the main food at one nest, he also found 

 magpie feathers scattered about, and adds that there was a magpie's 

 nest in the tree below which they were found. 



With its great killing powers and its boldness, the potential capacity 

 of this species for harm is very great, especially where poultry is 

 allowed to remain out in trees all night. Fisher (1907) says of the 

 horned owl that if it could be "considered only as it appears in the 

 great West, it would earn a secure place among the beneficial 

 species. * * * Where mammals are plenty it does not seem to 

 attack poultry or game birds to any considerable extent, but in regions 

 where rabbits and squirrels are scarce it frequently makes inroads on 

 fowls, especially where they roost in trees. Undoubtedly rabbits 

 are its favorite food, though in some places the common rat is killed 

 in great numbers ; we have a record of the remains of over one hundred 

 rats that were found under one nest." Quite often small birds 

 seem indifferent to the presence of a horned owl. E. R. Warren 

 writes us, in a copy of his notes, of an owl in a cottonwood tree. 

 "At the same time a pair of Rocky Mountain nuthatches were climbing 

 about in the tree and not far from the owl and not paying the slightest 

 attention to it. In another tree close by violet-green swallows were 

 going to and from their nest hole, probably feeding young." 



Behavior. — Before the Western States were settled as thickly as 

 they are now, these owls appear to have been quite abundant, par- 

 ticularly where there were thick groves or large trees to shelter and 

 hide them during the day. But they did, and do even now, sometimes 

 take shelter in dark caverns in more or less perpendicular cliffs. 

 After remaining quiet in some such secure retreat all day, they come 

 out usually about sunset, although they vary in this somewhat. 

 Probably all remain well below 8,000 feet throughout the breeding 

 season, and some then travel up as high as 1 1 ,000 feet above sea level, 

 only to descend again before cold weather. Of the very lowest parts of 

 their habitat along the Gila and Colorado Rivers, Gilman (1909) 

 says they are "found mostly in cottonwood trees, * * * and at 

 night range out on the alfalfa fields in search of gophers. I have seen 

 them also in bluffs and cliffs on the rocky hills a few miles from the 

 river. * * * A favorite perch of the bird is the roof of a building, 

 and there they sit and murder sleep in the most approved fashion, 

 along about 2 a. m. I have been obliged to get up repeatedly and go 

 out and throw rocks at them in order to get my normal amount of 

 slumber." 



Although I have no notes on the bathing of these birds, they are 

 known to visit springs and pools at night to drink; and they may 

 bathe there then, too. 



