240 General Notes. [April 



Diurnal Activities of the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus 

 virginianus). — The observations here given were made from or near my 

 home, which has a prairie location a mile and a half from the woods, that 

 form the western boundary of the timber belt along the Mississippi River. 

 There are many farm clearings near the river, but the western edge of the 

 forest remains uncleared, and in its original untamed condition through- 

 out a strip varying from a mile to three miles in width. In it various 

 solitude-loving species, such as the Red-tailed Hawk, Northern Pileated 

 Woodpecker, and Great Horned Owl still flourish. To reach my neigh- 

 borhood the last named species must cross a treeless area two miles wide, 

 unless sometimes it hides in evergreen trees that have been planted in 

 yards. During the past winter these owls have been observed much more 

 frequently than in previous seasons; sometimes in the night, but more 

 often by day — in the morning, at noon, in the afternoon, and in the early 

 evening. In the woods in spring and summer it is not an uncommon 

 experience to meet them abroad in the daytime. A neighbor informs me 

 that early in February he saw five of these great birds sitting at the same 

 time in a large water-elm, that is growing on the Mississippi River bottom 

 lands. 



At 1.30 o'clock in the afternoon of November 8, 1911, a Great Horned 

 Owl was discovered sitting on the ground in our front yard, where it re- 

 mained an hour before put to flight by the cat. It sat in an open space, 

 thirty-five feet from the house, and about that distance from the trunks 

 of three evergreen trees. While there it disgorged a pellet, and it safe- 

 guarded its position by many watchful turnings of the head. 



Just after sunset on December 3 I was halted in the middle of the road 

 by the approach of one of these owls. Flying a little above the telephone 

 wires it crossed the road about fifty yards ahead of me; wheeling it flew 

 back over the road, turned, and again recrossed it, evidently hunting for 

 rabbits that might be skulking beside the fences. Again another rabbit 

 hunt of the Great Horned Owl was watched'fi'r a half hour on January 20. 

 It was first seen at three o'clock in the afternoon flying over a field whose 

 covering of unsullied snow in the bright sunlight presented such a dazzling 

 surface as might blind the strongest eyesight. It seemed a test of this 

 species' power of vision that may well compare with the instance cited by 

 Dr. Cones in which these owls watched two white cranes circling high in 

 the air in the direct rays of the sun. Except for a few minutes when on two 

 or three occasions the owl aUghted on the snow it was in the air, beating 

 back and forth over an area a Uttle more than an eighth of a mile in length 

 and a trifle less than that distance in width, having on its eastern border 

 a fence and a short row of willow trees. The bird sometimes rose to a 

 height of seventy-five feet, but maintained an altitude of forty feet or less 

 the greater portion of the time. A half mile west of this locality that 

 morning two school-boys saw two of these owls together, and a few days 

 later three of them were seen flying about a solitary willow. 



In this vicinity the only apparent check upon the Great Horned Owl 



