216 THE RAPTORIAL BIRDS OF IOWA 



Owl starts to fly, whereupon he is subjected to a series of overhead 

 attacks until another perch has been reached. 



The hardiness of these birds is best shown by their early nesting 

 habits. Usually in February and even in latter January the eggs are 

 deposited either in an open nest or in the hollow cavity of a tree. Cap- 

 tain Bendire says, "Mr. Lynds Jones, of Grinnell, Iowa, informs me : 

 'I once had the good fortune to steal unnoticed upon a pair of these 

 birds in their love making. The ceremony had evidently been in 

 progress some time. When discovered the male was carefully ap- 

 proaching the female, which stood on a branch, and she half turned 

 away like a timid girl. He then fondly stroked his mate with his bill, 

 bowed solemnly, touched or rubbed her bill with his, bowed again, 

 sidled into a new position from time to time, and continued his ca- 

 resses. All these attentions were apparently bashfully received by 

 the female. Soon thereafter the pair flew slowly away side by side.' ' 



The above description of the courting habits of the Great Horned 

 Owl agrees with the observations of Professor Charles R. Keyes of 

 Mount Vernon, who says, "suddenly the hooting of big owls boomed 

 out from a near-by linden of the timber pasture, and there, sure 

 enough, were both birds engaged in ardent courtship and not mind- 

 ing our presence in the least. They stood facing each other on the 

 same branch and, with feathers ruffled and heads bobbing, were hoot- 

 ing in low tones as they side-stepped toward one another and greeted 

 one another with low bows. Finally they flew away, side by side, into 

 the timber tract." Mrs. Owl in the latter account seemed -to be 

 somewhat less shy and bashful. 



The nesting habits of the Great Horned Owl have nowhere been 

 more completely recorded than by Professor Keyes in the Smith- 

 sonian Report for 1911, pages 395 to 405. The nest here described 

 was in a hollow elm tree only twenty-two feet from the ground. Mr. 

 Keyes remarks that "at the very moment when this nest was discov- 

 ered a second pair of these birds was domiciled in a Red-tail's nest 

 placed in a tall white elm in heavy timber three and one-half miles to 

 the northwest and just ninety-two feet above ground." 



Mr. F. J. Lazell of Cedar Rapids has found them nesting in 

 Bever Park, within the city limits, both in an open nest and in a cav- 

 ity in a tree. It has also been reported that a pair nested in a cavity 

 in the limestone cliffs at the Palisades in southeastern Linn county. 



The eggs are from two to four, white, sub-spherical, somewhat 

 granular on the surface, and measure about 2.25 by 1.75 inches. 



