326 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



day, if necessary. Henshaw (1875) was inclined to believe that it 

 hunted more by day while it had young. 



Under a nest at the western base of the Davis Mountains, Tex., 

 Vernon Bailey (1905) found remains that indicated the food of the 

 young during the summer of 1902. The most abundant remains were 

 bones of cottontails and half-grown jack rabbits. There were also 

 skulls and other bones of pocket gophers, two species of wood rats, a 

 large kangaroo rat, two species of pocket mice, white-footed mice, 

 grasshopper mice, spotted skunks, and bats. "Bones of horned toads 

 and snakes were common and the legs and shells of beetles, grasshop- 

 pers, and various insects were abundant in the mass. I found one 

 sternum of a bird the size of a meadowlark and one lower mandible 

 that was probably from a chicken." There was a ranch near this nest 

 but Mr. Bailey says: "The ranchman admitted that only one or two 

 chickens had disappeared during the summer, but even then he could 

 not get over the idea that owls lived on chickens and were his enemies." 

 While reading over this list we should remember that perhaps pellets 

 and discards from the nest may not always show the full proportion of 

 birds consumed (see Brooks, 1929). Along the Mojave River, near 

 Victorville, Calif., these owls seem to live largely on meadow mice. 



Although it seems so strange that owls should eat skunks, this 

 subspecies has the habit fully developed. Huey (1931) says: "One 

 of these birds was collected in December, 1915, at Fort Lowell, near 

 Tucson, Arizona, and had a discolored area on its plumage where the 

 scent had struck, which was, however, of a light pinkish color, not 

 yellow. As there are three genera of skunks (Conepatus, Mephitis, 

 and Spilogale) to be found in or near the locality where this owl was 

 secured, we may perhaps assume that one of the two larger forms, not 

 Spilogale, had been the victim of the owl. * * * The other 

 Horned Owl was taken in January, 1917, at Potholes, Imperial 

 County, California, and was marked with a yellow stain." Probably 

 this owl had been preying upon a Spilogale. 



A. B. Howell (1916) writes: "I had always understood that an owl 

 is in the habit of killing its prey by a single bite through the head or 

 neck, and, indeed, I have had indubitable evidence that such is often 

 the case. However, on the first of the year, I flushed an owl from the 

 ground, and discovered that it had abandoned a freshly-killed cotton- 

 tail." But there were no marks on it except a few claw punctures on 

 the trunk of the animal. 



Mrs. Bailey (1928) adds ground squirrels, prairie dogs, fish, craw- 

 fish, scorpions, cattle grubs, Jerusalem crickets, moths, and vinegar- 

 roons to the prey already given. Western horned owls being large, 

 voracious birds, they sometimes kill game birds and poultry. Lacey 

 (1911) says: "Small rabbits seem to be their principal food, but occa- 

 sionally they harry the hen roosts and I have known them to kill 



