The Great Horned Owl 295 



the tree. The old nest was still there, and, just to 

 see in what condition it had been left after the storms 

 of winter, he climbed the tree. The nest was between 

 fifty and sixty feet from the ground. Just imagine the 

 boy's surprise, when about thirty feet from the nest, 

 to see a Great Horned Owl silently glide off and 

 wing its way through the tree tops. It was a revela- 

 tion, upon reaching it, to find that a Great Horned 

 Owl had really used an old crow's nest, which had 

 the appearance of being slightly remodelled and was 

 sparsely lined with evergreen leaves and feathers. 

 In the nest were three white eggs, nearly globular in 

 shape and about the size of a bantam's. The boy 

 afterward learned that the usual number of eggs 

 deposited by the Great Horned Owl is two, and that 

 the bird sometimes constructs for itself a nest in a 

 hollow tree or an evergreen. 



It was impossible to tell how long the bird had 

 been sitting, but as the period of incubation is about 

 four weeks, this fact could be approximately deter- 

 mined when the eggs hatched. On the first day of 

 April there were two little owls in the nest, and a day 

 later a third appeared. They were queer looking 

 little birds seeming to be nearly all head and eyes, 

 and their bodies were covered with the softest of 

 down. 



