28 



THE OOLOOIST. 



ing an elevation from which the ow- 

 lets could be seen but they were 

 "bunched" and whether two or three 

 in number could not be determined. 

 Having plenty of time I remained 

 two hours in the vicinity with a hope 

 of seeing the old birds, but without 

 success. 



April 24 found me again beneath 

 the nest, but this time prepared to 

 ascend. It was sighted from fully 300 

 yards and just as both owls flew from 

 the tree to be seen no more. The 

 nest contained the remains of an 

 adult male and female Cooper's Hawk 

 and two defiant juvenile Bubos. They 

 could not fly a s»troke, although sxib- 

 sequent measurements showed a 

 wing spread of 41 7-8 and 41 9-16 in. 

 That they were unable to fly seems 

 remarkable when we consider that the 

 average spread of the adult is not 

 above 54 inches. 



It was not until the season of 1903 

 that I decide<i to secure a set of eggs 

 if possible, and on March 15, after 

 the other localities had panned out 

 mill, I turned to this woods as a last 

 chance. A large nest was sighted 

 from a long way through the trees 

 and kept steadily in view, but no owl 

 was seen to leave. However, drop- 

 p-ings on the ground beneath the nest 

 and the sudden outcry of a flock of 

 crows suggested owls and I decided 

 to wait awhile. In a few moments a 

 large owl came into view followed by 

 a long string of clamorous tormen- 

 tors and alighted upon the topmost 

 branch of a giant sycamore, but in- 

 stantly perceiving me and took wing. 

 This convinced me the nest was oc- 

 cupied but before attempting the 

 climb I wished to observe the owl's 



home coming and found the foliage 

 of a live oak an excellent place of 

 concealment. It was a quarter of an 

 hour before she put in an appearance 

 coming with a noiseless even stroke 

 of wings that tended to blend with 

 the woodland gloom and render her 

 progress scarcely noticeable. She 

 alighted three feet from the nest an<i, 

 after careful survey of the surround- 

 ings, crept cautiously down the limb 

 into it and entirely disappeared. I 

 stepped into view and at almost the 

 same instant caught sight of one 

 wing as she dropped down the fur- 

 ther side of the tree and glided away 

 not more than two feet above the 

 ground. This nest wa® constructed 

 by Red-tails in 1899 and was placed 

 where a large limb separated into 

 three branches just 84 feet above the 

 ground. First limb 60 feet up and 

 circumference of the tree three feet 

 from ground eight feet, 10 inches. 

 Was three-quarters of an hour up the 

 tree but felt well repaid by the fine 

 set of eggs now in my cabinet. 



March 1, 1904. Mr. Wisener secur- 

 ed a set of two from this nest (as re- 

 corded in the Oologist for June, 

 1904) and on March 19, 1905, I took 

 another set of two from it. The bird 

 was a trifle latein getting down to 

 business as the nest contained but 

 one egg on March 5. This nest was 

 not occupied in 1906 nor could we 

 find any signs of the Horned Owl 

 breeding in this woods or elsewhere 

 until May 6, when we located a 

 family in Gratiot Township. The 

 first seen was a young bird that had 

 probably left the nest the previous 

 night. It was perched in a low dog- 

 wood tree and made no attempt to 

 escape. We located the nest hoHow 

 at once and Mr. Spicer shot the fe- 

 male as she flew over. 



J. CLAIRE WOOD, 



Detroit, Mich. 



