194 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



notes of the great horned owl. Twice I have recorded in my notes a 

 prolonged, tremulous call, who-o-o-o-o-o-o, much like that of the 

 screech owl in form, but much louder. Once this note seemed to have 

 a whining quality, which I recorded as wee-ow-o-w-ow-ow. I have often 

 noticed that when a pair of owls are calling and answering each other 

 there is a decided difference in pitch between the two voices; fancy 

 might attritute the deep base voice to the male, but it may be just 

 the reverse. 



William Brewster (1925) has much to say about the voice of this owl. 

 He refers to a "prolonged and cat-like scream. * * * Although 

 coming from a distance of nearly half a mile, this outcry was so loud, 

 so piercing and so expressive of ferocity as to be very thrilling. It 

 ended, however, with a hoarse hoo-ah which could issue from no 

 throat other than that of a Barred Owl, thus once more confirming my 

 impression as to the authorship of the 'caterwauling'." 



Referring to the nocturnal serenades heard in the spring, he says: 

 "They consist of loud and prolonged outbursts of cackling, laughing, 

 and whooping sounds delivered very rapidly and interspersed, as well 

 as ending, with the familiar ho-hdo-ah. Although probably inspired 

 chiefly by sexual ardour or rivalrv, they seem more suggestive of 

 loquacious and boisterous mirth. Both sexes take part in them and 

 sometimes as many as three or four birds will be gabbling and laughing 

 at once or in unbroken succession, making the woods ring with their 

 almost deafening clamor, perhaps for minutes at a time." 



Mr. Forbush (1927) says that the common call is often translated 

 "who cooks for you? who cooks for you all?", which gives a very good 

 idea of it. The call is easily imitated, and anyone who can do it well 

 should have no difficulty in calling up any barred owls within hearing. 

 Francis H. Allen tells me of a note that I have never heard, "a husky, 

 whistling note, with an almost human quality, ascending sharply at 

 the end. It might be written shooeet, but it has a strident quality 

 impossible to express in syllables. It may be imitated by whistling 

 thickly, not clearly, between the tip of the tongue and the inside gum 

 above the upper incisors." This sounds very much like the food call 

 of the young, described above by Mr. Sharp. Audubon (1840) refers 

 to a "hissing noise in lieu of a call", made by the young, which "may 

 be heard in a calm night, for fifty or probably a hundred yards, and is 

 by no means musical. To a person lost in a swamp, it is, indeed, 

 extremely dismal." 



Mr. Shelley tells me that one night when he was out coon hunting 

 with his hound, a barred owl four times gave a barking note, so much 

 like the baying of his hound that he was completely fooled, until he 

 traced the bark to the owl. 



Enemies. — The misguided sportsman and the farmer with a gun 

 are the owl's worst enemies; any hawk or owl is shot on sight, as a 



