OWLS 



113 



" Tiger of the Air " is the term which has heen 

 applied to this great Owl, and fitly, too, it must 

 be admitted, for the big bird undeniably is cou- 

 rageous, powerful, and bloodthirsty. That he is 

 highly destructive must also be conceded, for it 

 has been demonstrated beyond question ol a 

 doubt not only that he is bold, ])ersistent, and 

 generally successful in his raids ujjon domeslir 

 poultry of all kinds, hut that he is highly skill- 

 ful and deadly in his jiursuit of game birds, 

 song birds, rabbits, and squirrels. 



The tiger comparison applies well to the Owl's 

 manner of hunting, for the sweep of his great 

 wings in the silent air is as noiseless as the 

 tread of the big cat's padded feet upon the soft 

 earth. Through the woods and over the 

 meadows he glides as silently as a shadow, and 

 to the unwatchful rabbit or the slumbering 

 Partridge that shadow is the shadow of certain 

 and sudden death. For such creatures the Owl's 

 lightning-like swoop, and the murderous clutch 

 of his great talons, are as ])itiless and as ines- 

 capable as the spring of the tiger u])on the 

 helpless lamb. 



To the poultry-farmer this Owl is a veritable 

 terror; for, once the bird has acquired a pref- 

 erence for a diet of domesticated fowls, and has 

 learned that they are easier to caj)turc than are 

 the wild creatures, nothing short of death is at 

 all likely to deter him. For young Turkeys he is 

 likely to develop an especially strong craving, 

 and one instance is recorded of the loss by a 

 farmer of fifty-nine young Guinea-fowl, taken 

 in a single autumn by the same Owd. In such 

 instances the bird is hkely to become fastidious 

 to the extent that he will devour only tlie brains 

 of his prey, and leave the flesh untouched. Of 

 the mammals he has been known to kill even the 

 woodchuck, and he and other members of his 

 family are apparently the only rapacious birds 

 who frequently dine on the skunk, with the well- 

 known results which, however, evidently do not 

 in the least trouble the Owl. 



The bird's breeding habits are peculiar. In 

 the general latitude of Michigan the eggs are 

 laid before the first of March, and many in- 

 stances are recorded of their being laid as early 

 as the first week in February, or even in the latter 

 part of January, when the winter has been un- 

 usually mild. It is by no means uncommon to 

 find an Owl stolidly incubating under a thick- 

 blanket of snow. Two eggs are the normal 

 complement, and there is evidence that fre- 

 quently they are laid with an interval of several 

 days between them, for often a nest is found to 

 contain a partly fledged bird and an unhatched 



egg- This peculiarity has i)rompted the dubious 

 inference that the interval between the eggs is 

 deliberately ])lanned, so that the later one may 

 be protected by the fledgling when the mother 

 is away from the nest. It is much more probable 

 that the interval represents natural o]ierations 

 which are imperfect, rather than designed. 



Courtesy of Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 

 GREAT HORNED OWL (J nat. size) 

 A bold, persistent, and powerful raider 



" Dr. Louis Bennett Bishop and Mr. Herbert 

 K. Job have both noted an unusual habit of the 

 parent birds in apparently destroying the nest 

 when the young become old enough to balance 

 themselves in the fork of the tree, thus remov- 

 ing the conspicuous nest and leaving the bird 



