GREAT HORNED OWL— CAT OWL. 97 



readable description of their weird music, but none of these satisfy 

 me. A common expression, if I ma)' so term it, or hoot, is an 

 often repeated Oh-hoo, oh-hoo! oh-lioo, oh-hooi--7--r ! This is started 

 by one individual in a hollow, reed-like note in one part of the 

 forest, is taken up by another and another in other parts, until the 

 air resounds with a whirring noise like that made by a gigantic 

 fanning mill. Suddenly, in the midst of this uproar, an old patri- 

 arch, evidently in a great rage, and in a harsh, terrible voice, 

 shouts Waugh-hoo ! ivmigh-hoo-hoo-hoo ! and immediately every 

 other cry ceases, and for some minutes the silence of the forest is 

 resumed. Again this is broken by the single hoot of some daring 

 individual, and again is answered from side to side until the uproar 

 is at its former height, when once more it is suddenly checked by 

 the bad tempered individual with the harsh voice. It was not a 

 bad description of such a concert, that given by one of our men 

 one night when we had been particularly bothered by the hideous 

 uproar outside, and the more musical but more terrible song of 

 the mosquito inside our tent ; he said it seemed to him as if one 

 of the " noisy critturs " cracked a joke, laughed at it himself, 

 got the others to laugh, and then suddenly getting in a bad humour, 

 asked them " what in thunder thev were lauehino" at." 



The nesting sites of these birds are variously chosen. Some- 

 times the eggs are laid on the ground, more generally in a bulky 

 rude nest, not unlike a crow's, constructed in a lofty tree, or in 

 the hollow of a decayed stem. Reeks describes a nest he observed 

 in Newfoundland " built on the o-roitnd, in a tussock of o-rass in 

 the centre of a pond," this same nest having been for some time 

 previously occupied b)- a pair of wild geese. For my own part I 

 believe the birds are simply influenced in their choice of a nesting 

 place by the advantages this offers in respect to abundance of 

 food. Old nests of other birds I know to be sometimes used, and 

 perhaps more generally those of the Crow and Hawk. I have also 

 heard mention made of the eggs being found amid moss-grown 

 rocks, on which they had been laid without any intervening 

 material. 



The number of eggs varies from two to five, and even six ; 



M 



