STRIGID.E — THE OWLS. 37 



laughter. He adds that he ha.s frequently seen this nocturnal marauder 

 alight witliiu a few yards of his camp-fire, exposing its whole body to the 

 glare of the light, and eying him in a very curious manner, and with a 

 noticeable liveliness and oddness of motion. In Louisiana, where he found 

 them more abundant than anywhere else, Mr. Audubon states that, should 

 the weather be lowering, and indicative of the approach of rain, their cries 

 are so multiplied during the day, and especially in the evening, and they 

 respond to each other in tones so strange, that one might imagine some 

 extraordinary /e^c was about to take place among them. At this time their 

 gesticulations are said to be of a very extraordinary nature. 



The flight of this Owl is described as remarkably smootli, light, noiseless, 

 and capable of being greatly protracted. So very lightly do they fly, that 

 Mr. Audubon states he has frequently discovered one passing over him, and 

 only a few yards distant, by first seeing its shadow on the ground, in the 

 bright moonlight, when not tlie faintest rustling of its wings could be heard. 



This Owl has the reputation of being very destructive to poultry, espe- 

 cially to half-grown chickens. In Louisiana they are said to nest in March, 

 laying their eggs about the middle of the month. Audubon states that 

 they nest in hollow trees on the dust of the decomposed wood, and at other 

 times take possession of the deserted nest of a crow, or of a Red-tailed 

 Hawk. In New England I think they construct their own nest. Mr. Wil- 

 liam Street, of Easthampton, Mass., has twice found the nest of this Owl. 

 On one occasion it had young, unfledged. Upon returning to get them, a 

 few days later, they had disappeared, and as he conjectures, had been re- 

 moved by their parents. Another time he found a nest in a lofty pine, and 

 at a height of sixty feet. He saw and shot the old bird. He has often 

 found them hiding themselves by day in a thick hemlock. In the winter 

 of 1869, Mr. Street witnessed a sinoular contest between a Barred Owl and 

 a Goshawk over a Grouse which the latter had killed, but of which the 

 Owl contested the possession. The Hawk had decidedly the advantage in 

 the fight, when the contest was arrested by shooting the Owl. He has no- 

 ticed a pair of Barred Owls in liis neigliborhood for the past four years, and 

 has never known them to hoot from the time they have reared their young 

 to the 14th of February. They then begin about an hour after dark, and 

 their hooting continues to increase until about the 8th of April, when they 

 mate, at which time their hooting may be heard both day and night. 

 There is a very great difference observable between the cries of the female 

 and the utterances of the male. The latter seldom hoots, and there is as 

 much difference between his voice and that of the female as between the 

 crowing of a young bird and of the old cock. 



In two instances I have known well-developed eggs of tliis Owl taken 

 from the oviduct of the female in February. One of these cases occurred 

 near Niagara Falls in the spring of 1852. The other, in 1854, was noticed 

 by Professor William Hopkins, then of Auburn, N. Y., to whose kindness I 



