292 
WILD WINGS 
keenly craves a thorough knowledge of the whole avifauna, 
the success of the owl in eluding him is simply maddening. 
Indeed it is so hard to find an owl’s nest that one would need 
“hawking” — if for no other reason! — to hll in between 
times and provide sufficient stimulus to keep one’s enthusiasm 
from flagging. 
Owling differs also from hawking in that each recurring 
season it ushers in the nesting of the birds, and with it the 
sport with the raptors begins. The owls are as early as they 
are hardy. In fact the last of the owls to lay its eggs — the 
Screech Owl — has done so by about the time that the earliest 
of the hawks are beginning their family cares. The Great 
Horned Owl is the first of all the birds to nest. Think of the 
hardy mother, on an open platform of sticks in some tall tree 
of a hillside forest, brooding her eggs in February,—some¬ 
times even Januarv, — the raging blizzard heaping up the 
snow around her and on her back, or on the clear, cold nights 
when the mercury has fallen far below zero I 
Another difference between these allied sports is one of 
method. In part, to be sure, the methods of each are iden¬ 
tical. But owls are so comparatively scarce that merely to 
search the woods for them would be very unrewarding. The 
best clues to their whereabouts are secured through their habit 
of hooting. One may rest assured that somewhere near any 
locality where owls are habitually heard to hoot they will nest 
when the proper time comes, though to find the nest is quite 
another matter. My habit is to drive or walk out, beginning 
in Januarv, on mild, muggy afternoons toward dusk, along 
roads bordering favorable woodland tracts. It is notable that 
owls are particularly inclined to hoot at dusk, more so as 
the nesting-season approaches, when there are indications of 
storm, especially rain. At such times, if there are any owls 
in the vicinity, the listener is very likely to hear what will 
