GREAT HORNED OWL 305 



Clarence F. Stone, of Branchpoint, N. Y., tells me an interesting 

 story of a pair of young owls that followed their parents about all 

 summer, and even up to the latter part of October, in the vicinity of 

 his camp. He writes: "Almost every night during the month of June 

 1932, just as the shades of night darkened the woods, two large owls, 

 uttering harsh screams, the like of which I had never heard, came 

 down through the gloomy hemlocks in the bottom of the gully and 

 took perch on lumps of shale, or on the dead fallen trees still clinging 

 to the perpendicular cliffs. In July they changed their route by 

 coming around Chasm Lodge from the upper backwoods of pine and 

 hemlock, where they took perch in the lofty pines and gave vent to 

 rather terrifying and horrid screams. These two owl screamers 

 traveled together, apparently hunting, and alternately uttering the 

 loud, raucous screams that were evidently prompted by the urge of 

 gnawing hunger. Almost nightly during this month, a pair of great 

 horned owls came to hunt and hoot around the lodge. Invariably, a 

 little time later, the two screamers gradually approached the hunting 

 area of the hooting owls. Both the adult pair of hooters and the two 

 screamers had two nighly sessions, first from just at dusk to near 

 midnight and again just before the dawn of day." 



Again, on October 20, he writes: "As it was very rainy all the fore 

 part of last night, the hideous screamers did not come to entertain me 

 as usual, but at 4:30 o'clock this morning, I was awakened by the 

 booming hoots of adult great horned owls, and a few minutes later I 

 was fully aroused when the two ferocious screamers suddenly began 

 their harsh yowls in the big pines over the roof of the lodge." On 

 the evening of October 23 the four owls "went on a rampage" again, 

 and he saw the young owls clearly enough to identify them as great 

 horned owls, with well-developed ear tufts, and to see them giving 

 their harsh screams "four to six times a minute." And he says, in 

 conclusion: "In this instance, at least, it seems that the young owls of 

 the year were yet, so late in October, partly dependent on, or at 

 least following, the parent great horned owls about on their hunting 

 excursions. At no time did I hear the adult owls utter anything but 

 the hooting owl language. Only the young owls of the year shrieked 

 the loud, harsh, blood-curdling screams. And I am inclined to believe 

 that these harsh cries were simply hunger screams, characteristic of 

 yearling great horned owls." 



Plumages.— When first hatched the young owl is covered with pure- 

 white down, only slightly tinged with grayish buff on the back and 

 wings ; this gradually becomes more generally grayish buff during the 

 first week or two, when the secondary, buff, down begins to appear 

 and is fully developed at three weeks of age, with some of the natal 

 down adhering as white tips. This down is long, soft, and fluffy, 

 especially on the thighs, "cream-buff" basally, paling to "cartridge 



