Great Horned Owl. 253 



of him, some occasionally flying quite close and making 

 a feint, to all which demonstrations the owl was su- 

 premely indifferent. Any movement on his part would 

 evoke a fresh torrent of cries and abuse from the 

 crows. At length, having exhausted the corvine vo- 

 cabulary of epithets and scurrility, and being tired 

 of deriding that which, like Diogenes, would not be 

 derided, one by one the crows would abandon the siege 

 and seek less stoical victims, or less monotonous amuse- 

 ment. Whenever I entered the woods, if I failed to flush 

 one of the owls myself, I seldom failed to discover his 

 particular quarters by the outcries and demonstrations 

 of the crows. I frequently wished that the victim might 

 for once so far forget his dignity as to lose his temper and 

 pounce upon one of his tormentors, that I might witness the 

 hasty scrambling of the insolent crowd to a safe distance. 

 But the owl is long-suffering, and therefore a notable pat- 

 tern of patient endurance in persecution. 



Along in January the amorous inclinations of the male 

 are expressed in the more frequent deep bass notes it 

 utters as the short winter afternoons begin to wane. Out 

 from the dusk oftheforestresounds its "who,- — , who, who," 

 in heavy tones. The space between the first and second 

 notes of its call represents a rest, and the last two notes 

 are uttered in quicker time. Frequently there is but one 

 note, a deep, deliberate hoot, while at other times there 

 are two hoots pronounced evenly and slowly. Usually, 

 however, when there are more than two notes, the last 

 two are enunciated in less time than is given to the same 

 number of preceding ones. 



This owl leads the season in its nidificatiou. It chooses 

 either a suitable cavity in a hollow tree in heavy timber, 

 lowland woods being preferred, or a nest used in preced- 

 ing years either by hawks or crows. In the latter case the 

 two or three eggs are usually deposited on the bare twigs 

 in the slight depression. Sometimes, however, the old 

 nest is furnished with a lining of dead leaves, moss, and 

 feathers. February and March are the months for deposit- 

 ing and incubating the eggs. The pair mentioned in the 

 opening of this sketch selected a hawk's nest of the pre- 

 ceding season, situated thirty-five feet from the ground 



