The Great Horned Owl 



intervals, small bits, from the carcasses at 

 hand, including the feathers, entrails and all. 

 On this diet the young birds grow rapidly, at- 

 taining at an age of four weeks almost adult 

 size, although not yet fully feathered. They 

 are soon encouraged to help themselves from 

 the food available, and their legs, at first very 

 weak, gain strength enough to support them. 



While one of the parents is attending to 

 household duties, the other is foraging for 

 more game. In the dead of night, noiselessly, 

 like a ghost it sweeps along through the trees, 

 mercilessly picking its sleeping victims from 

 their sheltered roosts. 



That these owls are savage birds may be 

 learned by experience. With a wing spread 

 of between four and five feet, large and power- 

 ful, dauntless in courage, they prove danger- 

 ous antagonists for the intruder who meddles 

 in their home affairs. 



During some time that I spent up in the tree 



59 



