BIRDS OF PREY 173 
fiever saw. Then every feather was carefully combed 
out with the point of the bill until it felt comfortable and 
lay well in its place. For birds so untidy in the care 
of their nest, these Owls are surprisingly particular about 
their own toilet. 
375a. PACIFIC HORNED OWL. — Bubo virginianus 
pacificus. 
Famity: The Horned Owls and Hoot Owls. 
Length : About 16.00 to 18.00. 
Adults: Upper parts grayish, mottled with buff and darker; under 
parts heavily mottled light and dark grayish. 
Geographical Distribution: The wood regions west and south of the 
humid coast belt, almost throughout the State. 
Breeding Range: Same as Geographical Distribution. 
Breeding Season: February, March, and April. 
Nest: In hollow trees ; 30 to 50 feet from the ground. 
Eggs: 3; white. 
AMONG the tall redwood timber about Rowardennan, 
the hooting of a chorus of Horned Owls’ at dusk is a 
weird, ghostly sound. The theory has been advanced 
that the call of the owl is a means of terrifying the small 
animals, which, by their excitement, would reveal their 
presence to the keen ears of the soft-winged hunter. But 
this is not always the case, for those six or eight Horned 
Owls which congregated each night in the trees close 
together, and made the moonlight hours vocal with their 
uncanny notes, evidently did so from the mere joy of 
too-hooing. The effect in itself was bad enough, but 
when one thought of the timid little wood creatures 
trembling in their nests from terror at the sound, one 
