264 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



the Owl may render valuable service in their destruction. The 

 Skunk is also frequenth' eaten, and the nest and plumage of the 

 Great Horned Owl in the springtime very frequently evidence 

 this by their odor. Where chickens are allowed to roost out of 

 doors in wooded regions, it cannot be disputed that the Great 

 Horned Owl considers them legitimate prey, and makes period- 

 ical visits to the hen-roost. 



The Great Horned Owl nests the earliest of any of our Iowa 

 birds. The eggs are usually laid during the last half of Febru- 

 ary, but I found a nest containing three slightly incubated eggs 

 on February 6, 1904, near Coralville (Johnson county). Ellison 

 Orr records the finding of a set February i, 1896, in an old squir- 

 rel's nest in the fork of an elm tree near Postville (Fayette 

 county), also two eggs from an old Hawk's nest February S, 1896. 

 I have found ten nests containing eggs in Hancock county, all 

 being open nests, usually old nests of the Red-tail or Swainson 

 Hawk, in large trees, 35 to 50 feet from the ground. On March 

 3, 1894, found two nests, one with two slightly incubated eggs, 

 one with two fresh eggs; on April 6 the second nest contained 

 two more slightly incubated eggs; March 8, 1895, one with three 

 fresh, one with two considerably incubated eggs, snow and ice on 

 the edge of both nests; April 3, three eggs in nest from which 

 eggs were taken twice in 1894. February 22, 1896, three eggs, 

 slightly incubated; February 29, two eggs advanced in incuba- 

 tion, one egg more .so than the other; March 14, 1896, two fresh 

 eggs; March 22, two more eggs in nest found February 29, 

 which I left ; on May 2 it contained one young bird covered 

 with whitish down, and with the eyes not yet opened. The 

 nest contained the hindquarters of a large rat and a pocket 

 gopher. The Great Horned Owl lays a .second set of eggs when 

 the first set is taken, usually in the same nest, or in the immedi- 

 ate vicinit}^ Both parents forage extensivel}^ when the young 

 are in the nest and keep them well supplied with food. Mr. W. 

 G. Savage records one nest near HilLsboro, \"an Buren count}', 

 which contained thirty-eight field mice and one Quail (O.sprey, i, 

 10, 1897, 136). 



The note of the Great Horned Owl is a deep-toned cl>/wo-zl'/ioo, 

 often repeated, all on the same pitch, and is seldom heard except 

 in late winter and early spring. The presence of an Owl in the 



