380 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



bated when found. Seven weeks afterward I took another from the same nest, 

 which was still smaller, but so nearly hatched that I did not try to preserve 

 it. The Owl to wliich these eggs belonged was one of the largest I have 

 ever seen, and believe that their small size was due to the very old age of 

 the bird. It is almost certain that the Great Horned Owl raises but one 

 brood in a season in Florida, where they feed almost entirely on waterfo-^^d 

 and the smaller mammals, such as rabbits, squirrels, gophers, mice, etc. I 

 have never heard of their catching poultry in this region, and believe that 

 they do not." 



The Great Horned Owls are early breeders, laying their eggs throughout 

 the greater part of their range in the beginning of February and occasionally 

 even in the latter part of January. There seems to l)e but little difference 

 in the time of oviposition between some of the more southern localities, 

 Florida excepted, and those considerably farther north, and it also appears that 

 climate has little influence in the matter. In some of the Western States, 

 like Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, full sets of their eggs are not infrequently 

 found by February 1, while in the southern New England States it is not 

 unusual to find them in the second and third week of that month, mostly 

 however, about the beginning of March, and in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 

 and Newfoundland they nest about the latter part of March pr the beginning 

 of April. The country is usually still covered with snow and ice when nid- 

 ification begins, and their eggs are not infrequently frozen b}' the intense 

 cold prevailing at the time. 



In Newfoundland, as well as occasionally in other places, the Great Horned 

 Owl, according to Mr. Henry Reeks, nests sometimes on the ground. In his 

 notes on the "Zoology of Newfoundland," in sj^eaking of this species, he says: 

 "The oidy nest that came under my observation was built on the ground on 

 a tussock of grass in the center of a pond. The same nest had lieen previ- 

 ously occupied for several years by a pair of Geese (Bernicla canadensis).^' ^ 



Mr. George E. Beyer, of New Orleans, Louisiana, also found a nest of this 

 species, containing three young, in a hollow pine log on the ground. It is a well 

 known fact that the Western Horned Owl resorts to somewhat similar locations 

 to nest, in regions where suital^le trees are wanting. Mr. Audubon also says that 

 he has twice found the eggs of the Great Horned Owl in fissures of rocks, and 

 while such nesting sites are perhaps rare with the eastern bird tliey are l)y no 

 means uncommon with the Western Horned Owl. Col. N. S. Goss, in his 

 "Birds of Kansas," states that on the plains or treeless portions of the State it 

 likewise ne-sts in fissm'es of rocks. These birds are poor nest builders, and if 

 they do construct one of their own, it is through necessity and not from choice. 

 In the Eastern States the majority use open nests, generally those of the 

 Red-tail-ed and Red-shouldered Hawks, the Crows, and sometimes those of 

 the larger Herons, while farther west hollow trees, when procurable, are still, 

 to a considerable extent, resorted to. The trees most frequented by them for 



' Zoologist, 2d series, iv, 1869, p. 1614. 



