174 



THE OOLOGIST 



GREAT HORNED OWL 



In the February issue of The Oolo- 

 gist 1918 the editor advised that it was 

 the month to look for Owls. I followed 

 this advice and will never forget the 

 experience we had. The day was 

 cloudy but rather warm. We were pre- 

 pared to start for the woods when all 

 of a sudden a tornado was sweeping 

 through part of this locality tearing 

 down trees, roofs of buildings and do- 

 ing lots of damage, and for a minute 

 or two we did not know what was go- 

 ing to become of us. After the wind 

 had somewhat gone we started back 

 home and found the damage in our 

 section was very slight so we again 

 started for the woods. It was consider- 

 able colder, and after driving seven 

 miles we stopped at a farmhouse, and 

 being a little late in the afternoon we 

 put the horse in the barn and decided 

 to wait until morning. 



Early the next morning we started 

 for the woods in search for Owls' nests. 

 We made quite a' hike and it was in 

 the afternoon before we had any suc- 

 cess. The woods had mostly large, tall 

 burr oak trees. We now came to a 

 tree where a Red-tailed Hawk had 

 nested two years ago and as we ap- 

 proached the tree, all of a sudden a 

 Great Horned Owl started from the old 

 Hawk's nest and in a few minutes 

 about fifty Crows took after the Owl. 



The tree was a large oak and the 

 nest was in a very risky place, and the 

 wind being rather strong so it was im- 

 possible to climb the tree, for to try to 

 get to the nest would mean failure, and 

 right here I agree with Mr. Ramon 

 Graham in The Oologist of May 15, 

 1917, page 90. The Owls and the nest 

 is there but hard to get at, so we wait- 

 ed several days and on a beautiful 

 morning on March 16, 1918 we again 

 started for the Owl's nest. It was a 

 warm March day. We soon got to the 

 woods and upon reaching the tree the 

 Owl again flew off the nest. I now un- 



strapped my collecting outfit which 

 contained 150 feet of one-half inch 

 rope, one pair of climbers, collecting 

 box, camera, bird glasses, and fine 

 cord. We now took the fine cord, 

 tied a weight on the end of it and 

 threw it over the first branch. We now 

 tied the half inch rope on the twine 

 and pulled it over the branch and then 

 began climbing the tree with the aid 

 of the rope. It took considerable 

 time for after the first branch was 

 reached the rope was thrown over the 

 next branch and so on until the nest 

 was reached It was a hazardous un- 

 dertaking for the branches were un- 

 trustworthy, but we finally reached 

 the nest. Oh joy, two eggs! The two 

 eggs were removed and placed in the 

 collecting box. 



The eggs were badly incubated. 

 With time and patience we have in our 

 collection a good set of Great Horned 

 Owl's eggs. 



It was the last set that was per- 

 sonally taken by Wm. H. Pahrman 

 who is now somewhere in France. 

 Chas. F. Pahrman 



The half-tone illustrating this article 

 appeared in Vol. XXXVII at page 106. 

 — R. M. B. 



RED SHOULDERED HAWK 

 On April 10, 1916 I started for the 

 woods in search of Hawks and after 

 about two hours walk I came to a farm 

 house. The farmer was very friendly 

 and after telling him that I was search- 

 ing for Hawks' nests he began telling 

 me that in a woods about a quarter of 

 a mile away there were a pair of 

 Hawks that had nested there for the 

 past ten years. He said I would find the 

 nest pretty well in the timber for he 

 had seen the birds there a few days 

 ago. I thanked him very much and at 

 once started for the place where the 

 Hawks were. 



After I had gotten into the woods 

 pretty well I noticed one of the birds 



