320 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



with peculiar avidity. The Virginian Horned Owl is 

 very powerful, and equally spirited. Mallards, gui- 

 nea-fowl, and common fowls fall an easy prey, and 

 are carried off in its talons to the depths of the woods. 

 When wounded, says Audubon, it exhibits a revenge- 

 ful tenacity of spirit, scarcely surpassed by the noblest 

 of the eagle tribe ; disdaining to scramble away, it 

 faces its enemy with undaunted courage, protruding 

 its powerful talons, and snapping its bill. Its large 

 goggle eyes open and shut in quick succession ; and 

 the feathers of its body are puffed up, and swell out 

 its apparent bulk to nearly double the natural size. 

 In some districts it is a great nuisance to the settler, 

 making sad havoc among his stock of poultry. Among 

 some of the Indian nations a sort of reverential 

 horror is entertained towards this bird, and the priests 

 and conjurers have adopted it as the symbol of their 

 office, carrying about with them a stuffed specimen 

 with glass eyes, which excites general awe. This 

 bird usually constructs a bulky nest in the forked 

 branch of a tree, composed externally of crooked 

 sticks, and lined with coarse grass and feathers. 

 The eggs are three or four in number, and of a dull 

 white. 



The Mottled Owl (Strix noevia), a small, hand- 

 some species known as the Little Screech Owl, inhabits 

 California and Oregon as well as the Atlantic States. 

 They feed on small birds, beetles, crickets, and other 

 insects, build in hollow trees, and utter most dismal 

 shrieks in the late summer and autumn evenings, keep- 

 ing up the din till midnight. Mr. Farnham mentions 

 the Great Snow Owl (Strix Nictcea), and the Burrow- 

 ing Owl {Strix Cunicularia) which inhabits the 



