310 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



around the bird so that it was unable to fly, and fell to the ground 

 with its prey. * * * The Owl had grasped the snake about six 

 inches below its head, but the part of the snake below the owl's talons 

 had twisted itself around the bird tightly. There was at least one 

 light turn around the owl's neck." The snake was killed, though nei- 

 ther antagonist had given up the fight, and "the owl was so weakened 

 and helpless that it could not fly; it seemed to have been choked." 



S. A. Grimes (1936) gives an interesting account of struggle between 

 a great horned owl and a large black snake, 46 inches in length. He 

 found the owl "lying on its side with its wings outspread, trying its 

 best to get its talons on a black snake that was coiled around the bird's 

 abdomen just back of the breast bone and beneath the wings. The 

 snake had gotten itself around the owl in a double coil. Six or eight 

 inches of its head and neck and perhaps a little more of its tail were 

 free, but the bird appeared to try only to get hold of the strangling 

 coils around its body. It is easy to see that the bird could not possibly 

 gets its talons on that part of the snake tightly wound around its 

 abdomen, but why the hooked bill was not brought into play is hard 

 to understand." The owl was plainly exhausted but was able to 

 make a feeble flight for about 100 yards, with the snake dangling, 

 and alight on a stump. As Mr. Grimes approached, the owl flew 

 again and alighted on a log in a small pond, where a charge of shot 

 ended the career of both combatants. The owl had evidently attacked 

 the snake, and the slippery reptile, noted for its agility, had somehow 

 eluded the formidable talons and quickly coiled itself around the 

 body of the bird. 



The great horned owl, like some other birds of prey, often has a 

 regular feeding roost, to which it brings its prey to be torn up and 

 devoured. This may be an old, unoccupied nest, a wide, flat branch 

 of a tree, the hollowed top of a stump, or a hollow place on a fallen log. 

 Such places are profusely decorated with the remains of the feasts, 

 feathers, bones, fur, pellets, and droppings; they are usually not far 

 from the nesting sites. 



Studies of pellets made by Mrs. Bessie P. Reed (1925) showed that 

 they "were usually coated with a thick layer of mucus and never 

 contained any other material save feathers, hair, fur, and cleanly 

 polished bone. * * * Microscopic evidence showed that hair and 

 feathers were in no way affected by the digestive juices, although the 

 quills of large feathers were always splintered and rolled together. 

 On a number of occasions pellets were found that contained hair of 

 two different colors or hair and feathers in which the masses were 

 not mixed at all but were very sharply delimited, indicating that two 

 portions swallowed at different times were not mixed together." 



When small birds or mammals were fed to her captive owls, 

 "feathers, hide, and fur were always swallowed, the plucking or 



