SCREECH OWL. 
as a sliding tremolo,—a trickling down, like water over 
pebbles : 
From S.P.Cheney’s record. 
Kh - 00. 
Perhaps the descent of the whinny of a horse comes near- 
est to it of any succession of natural sounds.” 
But whatever may be our estimate of the song, the 
Yact remains it is bound up in mystery and carries with 
it a dubious kind of birdlike despair. This Owl must 
have accompanied Dante through that dreadful doorway 
over which was written the fatal words : 
SRR Lhe fr Ae ears 00, Ah-00,  <Ah-oo, 
‘* Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” 
Shades of Hades! How, O how did he ever get back 
again to sing his woeful song by the light of the moon, 
in our valleys of peace, and how are we ever to reconcile 
with reason the statement that this is a wail of woe and 
w zove song into the bargain! That is indeed the mys- 
tery of it. 
Sarah! Sarah! Woe....4 Woe.../ 
GreatHorned The Great Horned Owl is the only large- 
oe sized Owl with conspicuous ear-tufts, 
virginianus hence his significantname. He is, accord- 
L.22inches ing to all records, ‘‘the tiger among birds,” 
Allthe year destructive to small birds, quail, and even 
poultry, not to speak of reptiles, insects, small rodents, 
and even rabbits. In color this Owlis a mottled brown 
with varied tones of ochre and sepia, accented with 
black; ear-tufts black with touches of ochre; face 
around the large, topaz eyes, yellow ochre ; throat with 
a wide white patch; under parts buff-ochre narrowly 
barred with black. Female similar, but larger. Nest, 
in trees, probably that of a Crow, or Hawk, and not 
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