GREAT HORNED OWL 297 



efforts by snapping his bill. After a few moments he alighted again and began 

 his bowing and dancing all over again. 



A rabbit came running down the bank and its white flag caught his eye. Rising 

 in noiseless flight, he sailed downward without the flap of a wing, caught his prey 

 from the ground, glided back into the tree, and presented his offering to his 

 lady love. Apparently, she was convinced of his sincerity. Together they 

 devoured the rabbit, and when he again began his love dance she joined in with 

 as much enthusiasm as he. 



Nesting. — The great horned owl has never been a common bird in 

 southeastern Massachusetts. I hunted for 20 years before I found a 

 nest containing eggs. I find only 13 local nests recorded in my notes; 

 four of these were found during one season, 1907; in other years I 

 have never found more than one each year; but during 1933 my 

 companions, Alfred C. Weston and W. George F. Harris, found four 

 nests of this owl in this general region. 



All my nests but two were in old nests of the red-tailed hawk; one 

 was in an old squirrel's nest, and one in an old nest of the red-shoul- 

 dered hawk. All were in the heaviest timber available and as far as 

 possible from human habitations. Nine of the nests were in white 

 pines (Pinus strobus), three were in pitch pines (Pinus rigida) in a 

 region where no white pines were available, and one was in a large 

 beech tree. The nest in the beech was only 31 feet from the ground, 

 those in the pitch pines were from 38 to 42 feet up, and the white pine 

 nests varied from 40 to 70 feet above ground. 



Only twice have I known a pair of the owls to lay a second set after 

 being robbed; these were laid after an interval of three or four weeks, 

 and in both cases the same nest was used for both sets. The great 

 horned owl, according to my experience, does not show the persistent 

 devotion to its nesting area that is shown by the barred owl and, 

 particularly, by the red-shouldered hawk; whereas these other two 

 have been known to nest in the same patch of woods for many years 

 in succession, I have never known Bubo to nest in the same tract for 

 more than four years, and this has happened only twice in my experi- 

 ence. My theory is that these owls are such voracious feeders that 

 they exhaust the supply of small game, often within one or two seasons, 

 and have to move to new hunting groimds. 



The nest from which I took my first set of eggs, on March 4, 1906, 

 was an old red-tailed hawk's nest, 57 feet from the ground in a tall 

 white pine, located in a swampy hollow in a large tract of heavy tim- 

 ber, pines, maples, oaks, and yellow birches. The nest was made of 

 pine sticks and twigs, was full of dead pine needles, and was lined with 

 short, broken twigs and a lot of buff-colored down from the owl's 

 breast. It rested securely on four large branches, against the trunk 

 and very near the top of the tree (pis. 68, 69). It measured 32 by 22 



13751—38 20 



