GREAT HORNED OWL 299 



of June before the young are able even partially to shift for them- 

 selves. During all this time, and probably for some weeks longer, 

 they must be fed wholly or partially by their parents. They are 

 exceedingly voracious feeders, as the following records will show, their 

 food is difficult to obtain, especially where game is scarce, and it is 

 much easier for their parents to supply their needs before the summer 

 foliage becomes too dense. 



Such early nesting requires constant brooding of the eggs during 

 cold or stormy weather; sometimes the nest and even the incubating 

 bird are covered with snow, but the devoted mother generally succeeds 

 in keeping the eggs and the center of the nest dry and warm. Some- 

 times, however, the eggs are frozen and fail to hatch. C. A. Hawes 

 (1881) tells of a case where the owl, finding that her two eggs were 

 frozen, laid two more in the same nest. "Two of the eggs were in the 

 middle of the nest, and sunk about two thirds their depth into the 

 lining, and were much discolored from being in contact with the wet 

 moss and cedar bark. When blowing them they showed about seven 

 days incubation, but were badly addled. * * * The other two 

 eggs were a trifle smaller, but quite free from any stains, and were 

 quite fresh." 



Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1905) say: "The mating of this bird 

 appears to have little or no reference to the season. A pair has been 

 known to select a site for their nest, and begin to construct a new one, 

 or seize upon that of a Red-tailed Hawk, and repair it, in September 

 or October, keeping in its vicinity through the winter, and making 

 their presence known by their continued hooting." 



Throughout the Middle West, where large tracts of heavy timber 

 are scarce and where the food supply is adequate, the great horned 

 owl nests in much more open situations than it does in New EDgland. 

 Prof. Charles R. Keyes (1911) gives us a full and interesting account 

 of such a nest, found near his home in Mount Vernon, Iowa. A 

 "beautiful deciduous forest" along the Cedar River had been reduced 

 to scattered groves, and in one of the largest of these he had seen the 

 owls. "Soon after, the great oaks and hard maples of the eastern 

 two-thirds of the grove fell under the ax, leaving to the west only a 

 twenty-five acre remnant and, in the cut-over area, only some old 

 white elms and a few young maples and lindens. Among these latter 

 the forest soil soon gave way to a thick carpet of blue grass and so what 

 had been heavy forest was gradually transformed into a rather open 

 and still very beautiful timber pasture [pi. 70]." Of the nest he says: 



It was not in the heavy timber at all but in one of the large elms of the pasture, 

 and, moreover, hardly more than fifty yards removed from the above-mentioned 

 public road where teams were constantly passing. Toward the south the view 

 was wild, open, and picturesque enough; to the west, north and east, at distances 

 varying from 200 to 500 yards, were the schoolhouse and farm houses. * * * 



