Notrs on the Birds. 345 



uary s. 1870. two taken, one rod, one sray: Mth. one gray; 16th. one pray; 

 and Fclirnary 25, one gray. 



The rod and the gray color phases appear (o he ahout equally common. 



The food of the Screech Owl Is chiefly sniall rodents and insect.'^; it never 

 takes chickons. A pair of screech owls ahout a farm are worth much more 

 than a cnf in dostrcying mice. This species should be thoroughly pro- 

 tected. 



02. IJUBO VIKCIMA.MS yiKGlNIAXUS (Gmclin). (!I!I:AT HOU.NKn OWL. (375) 



Resident, hut not now very common, as a result of indiscriminate and 

 senseless persecution to which it has boon subjected. 



Carroll Cnnniy: October 5, 1S78, one taken near ranidon; on February 

 21. 1SS4. I saw one in a large sycamore tree on Deer frock east of Camden. 

 On March 0, 1SS5. a very large female was sent to us from Flora by Mr. 

 kS. W. Barnard. November 4. ISSO, a female taken near Burlington by J. M. 

 Beck who sent it to us. A male gotten oast of Torre Haute, April 27, ISSS, by 

 Mr. A. H. Kelso, one of my students. Another brought us in the fall of 

 1SS8 by Mr. Ed. Tetzel of Terre Haute, and another about the same time by 

 Mr. Fraidv Byers. A fine female caught in a steel trap near Sullivan, Indi- 

 ana, and brought to us December 4, by Hon. Murray Briggs. 



Diu-ing my boyhood days at Burlington, the Great Horned Owl. Cat Owl, 

 or Hoot Owl. was quite common. They froipionted the dense woods and 

 their v^hno, vhoo. irhoo-lioo. was a familiar sound, most frequent in the 

 spring and fall, but often heard in summer and winter. Their presence in 

 the deep woods was frequently made known by crows, or jays. These 

 species seemed to have no love whatever for the Great Horned Owl. AVhen 

 a jay oi- a crow discovered one of these owls quietly dozing in the thick 

 foliage or protection of some tree, it would at once set up a cry which soon 

 lu-ought to Its assistance all the other jays or crows within a radius of a 

 mile or more. They would all. or in turn, fly at the owl. perhaps sometimes 

 striking it. and all the time keeping up such a din with their cawing and 

 "r<iugli language" as nidy crows and ja.vs are capable of. When the owl 

 could stand it no longer and attempted to escape by fl.ving away, its tor- 

 mentors, especially the crows, would follow it closely, and renew the at- 

 tacks when it stopped again. These attacks are sometimes kept up for an 

 hour or more. 



That the Great Horned Owl is .guilty of occasional forays on the poultry 

 .vard must be admitted. An owl which has once met with success in its 

 vi.sit to the chicken roost is quite apt to repeat'the visits at intervals of a 

 few days and usually with disastrous results to the poultry. Perhaps 

 the most successful method employed by the farmer in meeting those raids 

 was by trapping tlio owl. A tall stout polo was sot in the gromid in the 

 chicken lot. A board was nailed on top of the ix)le and a .set steel trap 

 placed on the board. An owl coming to the chicken lot would be quite apt 

 to alight on the top of the pole and be caught in the trap. 



While the Great Horned Owl does do some damage to the farmer's poultry, 

 this can be excused when we consider tlio groat good they do in the destruc- 

 tion of noxious rodents. 



