GREAT GRAY OWL 215 



It resembled other nests used by great horned owls, except that it was 

 lined with the tips of green pine needles and twigs." 



Since the above was written, Dr. Thomas S. Roberts (1936) has 

 reported the taking of a nest and eggs of the great gray owl in northern 

 Minnesota, on April 4, 1935. The locality was on the north slope of 

 a hill and but a short distance south of the Canadian line. The nest, 

 which is now in the University of Minnesota Natural History Mu- 

 seum, "contains both down and feathers unmistakably those of the 

 Great Gray Owl and the eggs agree perfectly with descriptions of the 

 eggs of this species. The nest was in a dense tamarack swamp and 

 rested about 13 feet from the ground in the crotch of a medium sized 

 tamarack tree. It was built externally of tamarack branches and twigs 

 and lined rather thickly with deer hair with an admixture of shredded 

 bark, rootlets, and sphagnum debris. The three eggs were perfectly 

 fresh." 



Eggs. — The great gray owl has been known to lay anywhere from 

 two to five eggs, but three seems to be the commonest number. In the 

 nine nests reported by Mr. Henderson, there were 5 sets of three, 

 3 sets of two, and 1 set of five. The eggs are small for the size of the 

 bird, and are not so rounded as the eggs of most other owls, being be- 

 tween oval and elliptical-oval. The shell is rather roughly granulated 

 and not glossy. The color is dull white. The measurements of 52 

 eggs average 54.2 by 43.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measure 58.7 by 49, 48 by 42, and 53.4 by 41 millimeters. 



Plumages. — The three, presumably very small, young found in the 

 nest by Dr. Richardson (Swainson and Richardson, 1831) are de- 

 scribed as "covered with a whitish down." Two that I examined in the 

 Biological Survey collection, evidently the two taken by Mr. Preble, 

 referred to above, are about 7 inches long and perhaps two weeks old; 

 they are scantily covered with "olive-brown" down, which is just re- 

 placing the long white down of the earlier stage, the latter attached to 

 the tips of the new down. 



A young bird in my collection, taken in Alaska on August 6, shows 

 the wings and tail nearly grown and like those of the adult ; the under 

 parts are still in the soft, downy, juvenal plumage, each feather grayish 

 white, with three or four dusky bands and broadly tipped with white ; 

 the juvenal feathers of the back and wing coverts are "olive-brown", 

 broadly tipped with white; the long fluffy down on the flanks and 

 thighs is grayish white, obscurely banded with pale dusky; similar 

 down around the neck is banded w T ith "olive-brown" and pale buff; 

 the adult plumage is coming through on the back, scapulars and wing 

 coverts; the facial disks and the shape of the head are not yet de- 

 veloped. 



An older bird, taken in Alberta on September 8, is practically fully 

 grown and in nearly fully adult plumage; the head and facial disks are 



