GREAT HORNED OWL 303 



colored down, mottled on the back with dusky; the eyes were open, 

 and the irides were a pale, yellowish hazel (pi. 73). There was no food 

 in the nest but a number of bones. One side of the nest had been 

 beaten down considerably and was soiled with excrement, where the 

 young had been unsuccessful in their attempts to cast it over the side ; 

 the odor was rather offensive. On May 5 the old owl was still brood- 

 ing over her young, standing above them with ear tufts erected, but 

 she flew before I reached the tree. The young were now heavily 

 clothed in fluffy down ; their eyes were light yellow, and their primaries 

 were partially out of their sheaths. There was about half of a cotton- 

 tail rabbit in the nest. 



When I visited the nest on May 12, 1 was surprised to find it empty 

 and considerably dilapidated ; perhaps the young were forced to leave 

 it prematurely, for they were only about one month old and would not 

 be able to fly for at least five weeks more. After a short search, we 

 found them huddled together on a rock at the edge of the woods, 

 basking in the sun, two great, fluffy balls of down, hissing and brist- 

 ling defiantly, if we came too near (pi. 73). I doubted if any fox or 

 other predatory animal would dare to tackle them, as they looked too 

 formidable and seemed well able to defend themselves. Their parents 

 were watching them from nearby trees and were taking good care of 

 them; they had been feeding on a black duck, of which only the bill, 

 a few bones, and some feathers remained. Their wings were not 

 much developed, and their tail feathers were only just bursting the 

 sheaths. How they reached the ground in safety from that 40 foot 

 nest is a mystery ; probably their half -developed wings helped to break 

 the fall, and they were tough enough to stand the shock. I never 

 knew what became of them, for on my next visit I could not find them. 



The other nest, in Middleboro, was a previous year's nest of a red- 

 tailed hawk, 45 feet from the ground in a large white pine. When we 

 visited the nest on April 7 the two young owls were apparently re- 

 cently hatched, perhaps one and three days old; their eyes were not 

 yet open, and they were scantily covered with creamy-white down; 

 they were peeping loudly enough to be heard from the ground and 

 were shivering with the cold. The nest was a large, flat platform of 

 sticks, 28 by 36 inches, with no lining except the remains of the old 

 pine needles formerly used by the hawks; piled up around the north 

 side of the nest, as if to shield the young from the cold wind, were the 

 hind quarters of six cottontail rabbits, the heads and entrails having 

 been eaten. My next visit was made on April 14, when I found the 

 young owls to be about one-third grown ; they could move about in the 

 nest somewhat, and were well covered with buffy, mottled down; 

 their eyes were partly open and were light yellowish hazel (pi. 72). 

 The nest was very dirty and smelled badly of decayed meat and 

 general filth; the food supply consisted of three cottontail rabbits 



