THE OOLOQI8T 



abreast of the flow with my evaporat- 

 ing I was running the fire nights. The 

 only birds I had noted at tliis time had 

 been a Downy Woodpecker, Chicka- 

 dees, a Red-bellied Nuthatch and a 

 Ruffed Grouse. It was near one 

 o'clock. The moon was up and quite 

 l)rii;lit. I was alone, busy cutting up 

 wood for the fire, when, Who-who- 

 Who-who, Who-whoo, he rang out from 

 way up in the trees, just over my 

 head. I will admit I jumped. This 

 Owl often commenced to hoot just be- 

 fore sundown, though one dark cloudy 

 day he was heard at various times 

 throughout the day; usually the hoot- 

 ing stopped at sunrise. The first hoot- 

 ing always came I noted from a cer- 

 tain point in the wood then passed to 

 other parts as his hunt for supper, or 

 perhaps it was called breakfast since 

 he worked nights, progressed. I 

 judged by the excited cawing of the 

 Crows that he was often mobbed, but 

 this soon stopped as darkness came. 

 Once about two o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, while yet very dark there being 

 no moon, there was a great outburst 

 from the Crows, who spent the night 

 in the trees at no great distance from 

 the camp. I judged from the sound 

 that the Owl had caught one of his 

 persecuters, having chanced upon the 

 roost, and the Crows had fled in every 

 direction. It was as though each 

 startled Crow awoke with a yell; 

 there was much excited cawing for a' 

 time. The night the Owl made my 

 camp a visit, I had been hearing the 

 calls at a distance, thus I knew he was 

 abroad, but I neither heard the sound 

 of his arrival, and although I watched 

 and listened carefully I could hear no 

 sound as he took wing again The 

 flight through the limbs and tree 

 trunks was as swift and sure as a 

 Partridge in the day time. My time 

 was so taken up with syrup making 

 and other farm work that I did not lo- 



cate the nest, though I felt sure it was 

 not far away. Often I would hear an 

 answer, Who-who, Who-who, Who- 

 whoo as he called in his hunting and 

 this answer always came from the 

 section of the wood whence the first 

 calls of the night came; these answers 

 coming as I thought from his mate 

 on the nest. This nest I judged to be 

 in an old Red-Shouldered Hawk's nest. 

 From this hawk's nest, which has 

 been used yearly for a number of 

 years, I on the 5th of May, this year, 

 1920, took a set of three eggs. While 

 part way up this tree after the hawk's 

 eggs there again came the question, 

 Who-who, Who-who, Who-who, Whoo, 

 twice repeated, from just a few rods 

 away, then it passed to another part 

 of the wood, but I was up a tree and 

 not in position to follow as I would 

 have liked, this was about one o'clock 

 of a bright sunny day, yet some peo- 

 ple say Owls cannot see in the day 

 time. This Owl appeared to wish to 

 know why I took such an interest in 

 his old home, since he had broken up 

 house-keeping and let the place to Mr. 

 Red-shouldered Hawk for the summer; 

 said hawk to keep the place in repair 

 as rental. The Great Horned Owl is 

 given a bad reputation and to some 

 extent no doubt deserves it. I know 

 it is not adverse to making a meal 

 from a farmer's poultry, Mrs. .John- 

 son having found one which had just 

 killed a young four pound rooster 

 when she went to close up the chicken 

 house after dark one night, and would 

 I come quickly with the gun and 

 avenge the death of the poultry. 



Like Caesar, "I came, I saw, I con- 

 quered," at least I ate the chicken. 

 Mr. Owl had departed. I am also quite 

 sure that the Skunk is favorite food 

 for the Great Horned Owl. This spring 

 I picked up one that a sportsman had 

 sliot and then thrown away and it was 

 strongly impregnated with the odor 



