HISTORY OF CERTAIN GREAT HORNED OWLS KEYES. 399 



all over the dorsal and scapular areas. The eyes had partially opened 

 in the form of a rather narrow ellipse. Still quite listless the young 

 emitted the querulous note as described but did not snap their 

 mandibles. The view inside the nest hollow was rather a pitiful one. 

 In addition to half a coot and half a rabbit (probably the leavings of 

 two days before) there lay scattered about four young cottontails 

 hardly as large as an adult striped gopher. Two were whole, one 

 headless, and only the hind parts of the fourth remained. A high 

 wind and a chilly da}^ caused Mr. White and me to lose this extraordi- 

 nary picture. By April 26 the eyes of the young birds were nearly 

 or quite open, the iris being of a milky yellow or light lemon yellow. 

 The mandibles, which were now grayish yellow hi color, were snapped 

 vigorously. The primary quills were an inch and a half long, the 

 feathers just beginning to show at the tips. The food in the nest 

 consisted of the hind parts of an adult cottontail, an entire striped 

 gopher and a headless bobwhite. Various feathers of a flicker also 

 indicated a capture of this species. I was again without an assistant. 

 On April 28, with the help of Mr. George H. Burge, I was able to 

 repeat Mr. White's performance of three weeks before and get a 

 successful negative of the nest and contents. The young were now 

 2 weeks old, still quite drowsy and inert, and entirely disinclined to 

 open their eyes toward the light. The only food in the nest was the 

 hind quarters of an adult cottontail. 



Thus, for 1906, weather conditions thought to be insuperable and 

 frequent inability to get a helper when one was needed had permitted 

 a net return of only three good negatives. Further trips were made 

 alone to the owls' home and a few further observations recorded. 

 By May 9 the young seemed to have doubled in size and were wide- 

 awake and combative. In size they were even then, at 3 J weeks, as 

 large in appearance as a two-thirds grown Plymouth Rock hen. In 

 the nest lay the hind quarters of an adult rabbit, a headless young 

 rabbit about one- third grown, and a large headless brown rat. 

 Being away from town myself, on May 16 Mr. White, with a student 

 assistant, went to the timber pasture intending to secure a fourth 

 picture. The nest was found empty, the owlets having occupied it 

 this season only about 4 weeks. Soon after that, as I learned from 

 one of the neighbors, two little girls gathering flowers in the timber 

 tract came across both owlets as they were scrambling along the 

 ground and evidently still unable to fly. The girls reported the 

 strange creatures to a hired man who was temporarily in the neighbor- 

 hood and he hunted up the "varmints" and clubbed them to death. 

 The real neighbors of the owls would not have done this. They were 

 all interested in the big birds and all reported that their large flocks 

 of chickens had not suffered from their presence. 



