GREAT HORNED OWLS 
335 
was that five years before I had found a Great Horned Owl 
brooding an owlet in the bare fork of a tree, where there was 
nothing but a little dirt left of the nest. A hunter who was 
with me had seen such things before, and thought that the 
owl tore down her nest, as the young grew up, to make it 
less conspicuous. Now I am convinced that it is not done 
purposely, but is due to the elements and the slovenh" habits 
of the bird in using old rotten nests instead of building for 
itself. 
I also learned of the farther career and tragedy of the owl 
family. The owlet had again fallen out of the nest, and was 
mobbed continually by crows. The man who had shown me 
the nest found the youngster back in the woods on the ground, 
several hundred yards from the nesting-site. Taking it to 
his home on an adjoining farm, nearly a half-mile away, he 
kept it in a chicken-coop, and then let it out, to stay about 
his yahd. In a few da3"s the mother owl heard her little 
one, which “ peeped ” somewhat like a chicken. Each night 
thereafter she brought it food, usualh'’ the hind quarters of 
a rabbit, most of which was found b\^ it in the morning. 
After a while it straved back into the woods, and another 
man, a neighbor, found it, who brought it to his place, and 
kept it confined. Each night or earl)' in the morning the 
devoted mother brought food to her fledgling. One morning, 
shortly after dawn, she alighted on the ridge-pole of the barn 
with a rabbit. The farmer had just arisen, and, seeing her, 
seized his gun, and brought her tumbling to the ground. The 
savage little orphan he kept in captivity, and finally exchanged 
it with some one else for a boat. How strange it is, this blood- 
thirstv instinct in so many men, that makes them eager to 
kill everv wild thing of size, whether of an\^ use to them 
or not! Sympathetic observation of nature, allied with the 
fine new sport of camera-hunting, will enforce the appeals of 
