314 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



freely. This was the limit; I did not care to be scalped, or knocked 

 senseless to the ground, so down I came, leaving the owls the masters 

 of the situation. I visited the nest the next day, with a cameraman 

 to photograph the performance, but the owls failed to repeat their 

 attacks. 



I have since learned that my experience was not unique. I find in 

 the literature reports of numerous similar attacks on men at the nests. 

 Professor Keyes (1911) says, of a blow that he received: "It came 

 absolutely unexpected and was so violent as to leave the left side of 

 my head quite numb. * * * The slash which began on the left 

 cheek and ran across the left ear was rather ugly but not dangerous. 

 * * * Three times on this occasion one of the birds flew in from a 

 neighboring tree and with strong stroke of wing came straight at my 

 head. It was not at all the stoop of hawk or falcon, but rather the 

 onrush of a heavy projectile with a very flat trajectory. Like a large 

 projectile too the flight was visible and so all the more disconcerting; 

 unlike a projectile it was noiseless as a flying shadow." 



Donald J. Nicholson (1926) received even rougher treatment when 

 he climbed to within 6 feet of a nest containing eggs; he writes: 

 "Swiftly the old bird came straight as an arrow from behind and 

 drove her sharp claws into my side, causing a deep dull pain and 

 unnerving me, and no sooner had she done this than the other attacked 

 from the front and sank his talons deep in my right arm causing 

 blood to flow freely, and a third attack and my shirt sleeve was torn 

 to shreds for they had struck me a third terrible blow on the right 

 arm tearing three long, deep gashes, four inches long; also one claw 

 went through the sinew of my arm, which about paralyzed the entire 

 arm." 



Attacks on human beings at other times have been reported several 

 times; a man, moving about at night near the haunts of the owl, is 

 likely to be struck on the head, especially if he is wearing a light- 

 colored cap or one made of fur, which the owl may mistake for some 

 kind of prey. Forbush (1927) tells of one that struck the claws of 

 both feet into the back of a large collie dog. "This bird may have 

 been misled by a white patch on the dog, as the white on the back of a 

 skunk is its favorite mark." 



Others have noticed a strange behavior at the nest, which is common 

 with the long-eared owl, but which I have never seen in the great 

 horned. Ralph W. Jackson (1925) describes it as follows: 



As I was climbing the tree to examine the young, which were visible from the 

 ground, I heard short wailing notes to one side and arising apparently from the 

 ground. * * * When about thirty-five feet up, I was surprised to see one of 

 the Owls half running and fluttering some fifty yards away on the floor of the 

 woods with wings outstretched and uttering the notes that I heard a few moments 

 before. Occasionally the bird would stop, beating first one wing and then the 



