GREAT HORNED OWL 301 



are always further thickly lined with scales of pine bark, a material I have never 

 found in any quantity in the nests occupied by the Eagles. The amount of this 

 bark in each nest seems to be about the same, which would not likely be the case 

 had it fallen into the nests by chance, which may occasionally happen to a limited 

 extent. In addition to this bark there are always more or less feathers from the 

 birds in this second lining. Many birds of prey line their nests with leaves or 

 bark from resinous trees and they do this as a preventive remedy for parasites, 

 with which they are always more or less troubled. * * * 



These birds become very much attached to certain localities and seldom wander 

 far from them, even in cases of extreme persecution. As a usual thing they will, 

 should their nest be disturbed, take another in the immediate vicinity, and after 

 a season or two return again to the first one; but in this locality I have known one 

 of these Owls to lay a third set of eggs in the same nest from which the first two 

 had been successively taken. In Florida this species usually commences breeding 

 in December. I have taken eggs about one-third incubated December 17, and 

 found nearly fresh ones January 5. These are the earliest and the latest dates of 

 which I have any personal records, and have never found more than two eggs in a 

 nest, and about 60 per cent, of the sets consisted of a single egg. 



Donald J. Nicholson has sent me his notes on 14 nests found by him 

 in Florida. Eleven of these were in old nests of the bald eagle, and 

 three were in red-tailed hawks' nests. The earliest date on which he 

 found eggs was December 7, but he found young as early as December 

 26, which indicated an earlier egg date. In one case, where the owl 

 had preempted a brand new redtail's nest, he flushed the owl off the 

 nest ; the owl alighted in the top of a palmetto and was attacked by the 

 hawk, which "dived like a bullet at the thief and gave it a stunning 

 blow", and the "owl flew rapidly away." 



Dr. Paul L. Errington (1932a) writes: 



None of the twenty-nine 1930-1932 Wisconsin horned owl nests upon which 

 personal data were procured showed evidence of having been built or remodeled 

 to any degree by the strigine occupants. In practically every case the owls' nest- 

 making instincts seemed satisfied by cleaning out the debris from the immediate 

 bottom of the nesting place and by lining the same with variable quantities of breast 

 feathers. Nest sites chosen were: red-tailed hawk nests, thirteen; crow nests, 

 eight; hollow trees, three; unidentified stick nests, two; holes or crevices in rock 

 faces, two; fox-squirrel nest, one. Nests taken over were usually in secluded loca- 

 tions, the prospective occupants requiring mainly privacy and convenience; in 

 other respects the birds displayed very limited judgment in selecting nests, as four 

 were of such flimsy construction that they disintegrated during the storms or from 

 use, to dump eggs or owlets on the ground. 



Herbert W. Brandt writes to me that in Texas they "show a great 

 variation in nesting sites, generally utilizing old hawks' nests, but nests 

 are also found in rocky caves, hollow trees, and, in the prairie region, 

 even on the ground. We found one nest in the long grass near a 

 windmill." 



Ivan R. Tomkins tells me that he found two young owls of this 

 species "in a shell hole on the east side of old Fort Pulaski." R. C. 

 Hallman (1929) found a nest on the ground in Florida; "the nest, which 

 could hardly be called one, was placed on the ground, and was composed 



