A HISTORY OF CERTAIN GREAT HORNED OWLS. 1 



[With 8 plates.] 



By Charles R. Keyes. 



My experiences with great horned owls {Bubo virginianus, espe- 

 cially with a pair under my observation for several years, have often 

 suggested a contrast and comparison with Mr. Finley's work on the 

 California condor. In several respects our subjects and experiences 

 show a certain broad resemblance. Both birds belong to the family 

 of birds of prey, the one being the largest of the North American vul- 

 tures, the other the greatest of all the owls. The condor has passed 

 into legend and literature as the largest bird of flight and the most 

 graceful when on the wing; the great horned owl occupies a place no 

 less important in legend and literature as the symbol of brooding wis- 

 dom and solemn mystery. In both our studies, too, the rare privilege 

 was enjo3 r ed of extending our observations over the whole home period 

 of the bird's life, from the eggs in the nest to the young ready for their 

 first excursion into the outside world. 



In most respects, however, our stories are as much in contrast as 

 they could well be. The condors had their home in one of the wildest 

 and most inaccessible of Calif ornian mountain regions; from their nest 

 rim the owls could look out upon five farmhouses, with their numerous 

 outbuildings, and one schoolhouse, all within a radius of 500 yards, 

 and all neighbors of other homesteads and schoolhouses set down 

 in the very peaceful and nonmountainous State of Iowa. The con- 

 dors, in their wild environment, were tame and well-disposed from the 

 first and grew constantly more docile as the study of their home life 

 proceeded, proving to be, apparently, the gentlest of all the raptorial 

 birds; the great horned owls, with surroundings that would seem to 

 teach peace, had bad dispositions to begin with, and these con- 

 stantly grew worse, until, after six weeks of suspense and with the 

 longest of our claw marks still unhealed, my assistant and I felt a 

 sense of relief when the young owls finally took to the tree tops, 

 leaving us with fairly whole physiognomies and the feeling that we 



i Reprinted by permission from The Condor, a magazine of western ornithology, Hollywood, Cal., vol. 13, 

 No. 1, January-February, 1911, pp. 5-19. 



395 



