304: HISTORY OF THE 



large, would fly with it to its perch before attempting to eat it. 

 In daytime it seldom came at call, but would always answer 

 with a low, guttural, rattling note. Boy-like, it was one of my 

 chief delights at eve to drop a mouse from a trap into a box. 

 At sight of the mouse it would raise its feathers, quiver with ex- 

 citement and eagerly pounce upon it, bite it through the back 

 until limp or dead, then, with a chuckling note of satisfaction, 

 carry it to its perch. The birds make quite a variety of low 

 sounds, but the only one heard at a distance is its screeching, 

 tremulous, wailing call note or song, so often heard at eve and 

 during the night, especially when the rnoon is shining. 



Their nests are placed in holes in trees, occasionally in nooks 

 in buildings. They are sparingly lined with grasses, leaves and 

 feathers. Eggs four to six, 1.40x1.22; pure white; in form, 



subspherical. 



GENUS BUBO CUVIER. 



"Two to three outer quills with their inner webs emarginated. Ear tufts 

 well developed; loral feathers not hiding the bill, and the claws and terminal 

 scutella of the toes exposed. Lower tail coverts not reaching the end of the 

 tail." 



Bubo virginianus (GMEL.). 



GREAT HORNED OWL. 

 PLATE XX. 



Resident; common. Begin laying the last of February. 



B. 48. R. 405. C. 462. G. 187, 143. U. 375. 



HABITAT. Eastern North America; west to the edge of the 

 Great Plains; south through eastern Mexico, to Costa Rica. 



SP. CHAR. "Plumage varies more or less in depth of coloration. Adult: 

 Bases of the feathers yellowish rufous, this partially exposed on the head above 

 the nape, along the scapulars, oil the rump, and sides of the breast. On the 

 upper surface this is overlaid by a rather coarse transverse mottling of brownish 

 black upon a white ground, the former rather predominating, particularly on the 

 head and neck, where it forms broad, ragged, longitudinal stripes, (almost oblit- 

 erating the transverse bars,) becoming prevalent, or blended, anteriorly. The 

 lower feathers of the scapulars, and some of the lower feathers of the middle 

 and secondary wing coverts, with inconspicuous transverse spots of white. On 

 the secondaries the mottling is finer, giving a grayish aspect, and crossed with 

 eight sharply-defined but inconspicuous bands of mottled dusky; primary cov- 

 erts with the ground color very dark, and crossed with three or four bands of 

 plain blackish, the last terminal, though fainter than the rest; ground color of 

 the primaries more yellowish, the mottling more delicate; they are crossed by 

 nine transverse series of quadrate dusky spots. The ground color of the tail is 



