BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 157 



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Ornithologist and Oologist, June, 1886, says : " In thirteen nests of this 

 bird that have come under personal notice, twelve contained two egg's, 

 or young, and only one contained three eggs. All the nests referred to 

 above were placed in branches of trees and were generally those of 

 hawks or crows, renovated or enlarged. Occasionally a hollow tree is 

 used for this purpose. Upon one occasion I replaced the owl's eggs 

 taken from a nest with those of the common hen, and upon visiting them 

 at the expiration of three weeks, found that both the latter had been 

 hatched and had fallen from the nest, about twenty feet from the ground, 

 and that the owls had deserted the locality. The Great Horned Owls 

 are liberal providers for their young. I have frequently found full 

 grown rabbits lying in the nest beside the young, and scarcely a nest 

 visited did not have a strong odor of skunk, while bones and feathers 

 were scattered around attesting to the predacious habits of the proprie- 

 tors." " The flight of the Great Horned Owl is elevated, rapid and 

 graceful. It sails with apparent ease and in large circles, in the manner 

 of an eagle, rises and descends without the least difficulty by merely 

 inclining its wings or its tail as it passes through the air. Now and 

 then it glides silently close over the earth with incomparable velocity, 

 and drops, as if shot dead, on the prey beneath. At other times, it sud- 

 denly alights on the top of a fence stake or a dead stump, shakes its 

 'feathers, arranges them, and utters a shriek so horrid that the woods 

 around echo to its dismal sound. Now, it seems as if you heard the 

 barking of a cur dog ; again the notes are so rough and mingled together 

 that they might be mistaken for the last gurglings of a murdered person 

 striving in vain to call for assistance ; at another time, when not more 

 than fifty yards distant, it utters its more usual hoo, hoo, hoo-e, in so 

 peculiar an undertone that a person unacquainted with the notes of this 

 species might easily conceive them to be produced by an owl more than 

 a mile distant. During the utterance of all these unmusical cries it 

 moves its body, and more particularly its head, in various ways, putting 

 them into positions, all of which appear to please it much, however gro- 

 tesque they may seem to the eye of man. In the interval following each 

 cry it snaps its bill." Audubon. 



These owls, like the preceding species, are not migratory and when 

 not engaged in breeding lead a solitary existence. Although chiefly 

 nocturnal in habits, Great Horned Owls are often seen in cloudy weather 

 and in the early twilight searching for food. On one occasion, when the 

 sun was shining brightly (about 10 A. M.), I saw one of these owls make 

 two attempts to catch a hen and her young chicks. 



Audubon says : Its food consists chiefly of the larger species of galli- 

 naceous birds, half-grown wild turkeys, pheasants and domestic poultry 

 of all kinds, together with several species of ducks. Hares, young opos- 

 sums and squirrels are equally agreeable to it, and whenever chance 

 throws a dead fish on the shore the Great Horned Owl feeds with pecu- 

 liar avidity on it." 



