GREAT HORNED OWLS 335 



was that five years before I had found a Great Horned Owl 

 brooding an owlet in the bare fork of a tree, where there was 

 nothing but a little dirt left of the nest. A hunter who was 

 with me had seen such things before, and thought that the 

 owl tore down her nest, as the young grew up, to make it 

 less conspicuous. Now I am convinced that it is not done 

 purposely, but is due to the elements and the slovenly habits 

 of the bird in using old rotten nests instead of building for 

 itself. 



I also learned of the farther career and tragedy of the owl 

 family. The owlet had again fallen out of the nest, and was 

 mobbed continually by crows. The man who had shown me 

 the nest found the youngster back in the woods on the ground, 

 several hundred yards from the nesting-site. Taking it to 

 his home on an adjoining farm, nearly a half-mile away, he 

 kept it in a chicken-coop, and then let it out, to stay about 

 his yard. In a few days the mother owl heard her little 

 one, which " peeped " somewhat like a chicken. Each night 

 thereafter she brought it .food, usually the hind quarters of 

 a rabbit, most of which was found by it in the morning. 



After a while it strayed back into the woods, and another 

 man, a neighbor, found it, who brought it to his place, and 

 kept it confined. Each night or early in the morning the 

 devoted mother brought food to her fledgling. One morning, 

 shortly after dawn, she alighted on the ridge-pole of the barn 

 with a rabbit. The farmer had just arisen, and, seeing her, 

 seized his gun, and brought her tumbling to the ground. The 

 savage little orphan he kept in captivity, and finally exchanged 

 it with some one else for a boat. How strange it is, this blood- 

 thirsty instinct in so many men, that makes them eager to 

 kill every wild thing of size, whether of any use to them 

 or not ! Sympathetic observation of nature, allied with the 

 fine new sport of camera-hunting, will enforce the appeals of 



