PACIFIC HORNED OWL 333 



the owl firmly clutching the poisoned body of its prey. I examined a great many 

 stomachs of these owls, the contents of which showed about an equal number of 

 mammals and large birds. Nothing smaller than a Green-winged Teal was found. 

 A number of stomachs contained the remains of hens, curiously enough all of them 

 being Barred Plymouth Rock. This is decidedly strange, because such breeds 

 as the White Leghorn outnumber them in local poultry yards nearly twenty to 

 one. The mammals eaten were confined almost entirely to rabbits and small 

 skunks, or civets (Spilogale) ; * * * in one stomach I found the entire 

 hindleg of a full grown civet. * * * Great as was the flight of these owls in 

 the vicinity of Tacoma, the main abundance seems to have centered in Vancouver 

 Island, as is shown by a letter from Mr. Walter F. Burton, of Victoria, B. C.: 

 "We have a plague of Horned Owls here, which has cleaned out all our pheasants. 

 Hundreds have been shot, but the damage is done. I was out after them yester- 

 day and in a short walk counted fourteen pairs of pheasant wings. * * * 

 Their chief food here is pheasants, grouse, Short-eared Owls and Meadowlarks. 

 Now that they have finished the gamebirds they are eating salt-water ducks; the 

 last one I shot had a Goldeneye. Out of all the owls shot here I have not heard 

 of a rat or mouse being found in the stomachs." * * * The largest bird that 

 I have known the Horned Owls to kill is the Hutchins Goose, which came from the 

 game farm of Dr. Shaver. The killing must have taken place in the water, as 

 the body of the goose was in the lake with the head and neck on a floating log. 

 The body was poisoned and the owl found beside it next morning, the claws of one 

 foot securely grasping the tail of the goose. * * * The method of killing so 

 large a bird was by ripping up the neck, as the head and body were uninjured; 

 * * * the victim is several times as heavy as the murderer. The Horned 

 Owl Invasion, as it might be called, extended at least as far south as Portland, 

 Oregon, where pheasant farms in that vicinity have suffered severely from their 

 depredations. The main line of flight seems to have been on the Pacific coast side 

 of the Cascade Mountains, as on the east side reports do not indicate any very 

 great increase over the usual numbers. Among the many interesting features of 

 the migration of these owls is the fact that at least seventy-five percent of those 

 taken have been females. 



This was in the vicinity of Tacoma, and it would be interesting to 

 learn if the males migrated by another route, or even migrated at all. 

 There is no record of a corresponding male owl migration that year. 

 Furthermore, the females examined up to March first showed no 

 indication of breeding, and for any horned owls to wait that late is 

 most interesting. Can it be that the shortage of food and the con- 

 sequent migration tend to slow up sexual impulses? 



BUBO VIRGINIANUS PACIFICUS Cassin 



pacific horned owl 



Plate 77 



HABITS 



Contributed by Milton Philo Skinner 



This is preeminently the horned owl of California, where it occurs 

 from sea level up to 7,000 feet above, in all parts except the northwest 

 humid coast region. Its absence from the higher mountains above 

 7,000 feet may be due to a lack of the food that it prefers. While 



