April 1887.] 



A^D OOLOGIST. 



59 



streams for shelter in winter, after the snow 

 has covered its summer feeding grounds. Here 

 owing to the nature of^the countiy, they are 

 obliged to live continually in the scrub oak of 

 the mesas, nor do thej^ in winter frequent the 

 stream bottoms, the snow water is good enough 

 for them and the scrub oak furnishes plenty of 

 shelter, besides mauj^ acorns on wliich they 

 subsist until heavy snows, when the leaves of 

 various bushes with small twigs and grass- 

 seed supply them until the snow thaws. It 

 takes a good wing shot to drop one of these 

 birds, but they are very tender and fall at a 

 touch of number eiffht or ten shot. 



The Number of Eggs Laid by The 

 Great Horned Owl. 



BY CHARLES F. MORRISON, FORT LEAVIS, COL. 



It has been with some amusement that I have 

 read, from time to time, the statements of some 

 writers in the Ornithologist and Oologist 

 as to the number of eggs in a clutch of the 

 Great Horned Owl, {Bubo virginianus) . On 

 page 11 of Vol. 11, I find this statement: "Thus 

 the Great Horned Owl is said * * * * to 

 lay from three to six eggs, toMle the real num- 

 ber is onJy two or «/iree." To me, this idea of 

 any one saying that the "Hooter" shall not lay 

 more than three eggs is simply ridiculous, and 

 would be to any collector that had spent years 

 in the field in all parts of the United States and 

 British America. Such statements should onlj- 

 come from closet oologists whose field work 

 has been limited to certain localities. 



That tills bird lays but two or three eggs as a 

 rule, I will admit; and in the states east of the 

 Mississippi River and along the Pacific coast, 

 evidently does lay but that number ; but, in the 

 northern range of the Rocky Mountains and its 

 numerous spurs, it deposits from two to six eggs. 

 I make this statement from six year's experi- 

 ence in that section. The first nest of this spe- 

 cies I ever found was in 1880, on the North 

 Platte River, one mile north of Fort Laramie, 

 Wyoming Ter. ; contained six eggs, and on 

 the same day, and one mile up the river, I 

 found another nest containing four eggs. A 

 few days later I found, down the river, two 

 nests from which I took nine eggs ; one set of 

 five, and one of four. 



During my collecting trip through Wyoming, 

 Southern Montana, Western Nebraska, portions 

 of Utah and Idaho, I found but one nest of two 

 eggs, which was less than a mile from Fort 



McKinney, Wyoming, on Clear Creek, and near 

 the foot hills of the Horn Mountains. This 

 nest was empty but I secured two young birds 

 from the lower limbs of a small tree not twenty 

 yards from the nest. This was on May 28th, 

 1884, rather a late date for this bird. 



During the winter of 1885-86 I happened to 

 be travelling over a larger part of the United 

 States, and on March 1886, I found mj^self at 

 Hannable, Mo., where I took two sets of two 

 eggs each. These are the only sets of two eggs 

 now in mj- collection which I secured myself. 

 I was never so fortunate as to find this bird in 

 New England and my Hannable sets are my 

 most Eastern finds. 1 was therefore much sur- 

 prised at the several statements in the Orni- 

 thologist AND Oologist, and being asked by 

 a personal friend of mine who knew my expe- 

 rience dittered, to give my side of tlie story, 1 

 turned over my old note books with the above 

 results. 



Now, why can't we look deeper into these 

 things, and see if the "Hooter" does not come 

 under influences in difterent localities which 

 change its breeding habits as well as its plum- 

 age. If the plumage and song of birds are- 

 changed, wliy might not this aff"ect their egg 

 laying to some extent? Ornithology is yet in 

 its infancy, notwithstanding the long strides 

 made in the past ten years. 



As for others of our Raptures I am not at 

 present able to speak, but I think that time will 

 show that more eggs are laid to a clutch in 

 some species. I shall devote the coming sea- 

 son to Baptores especially, and will mak(( the 

 result known. In the meantime I invite cor- 

 respondence as regards B. virginiarns, and 

 would be especially pleased to hear from col- 

 lectors from the North River region upon this 

 subject. No one man can learn all, it is only 

 by many working and comparing results that 

 the truth is l)rought to light. 



Some New Birds For Texas. 



BY WILLIAM LLOYD, I'AINT KOCK, TEXAS. 



On the 20th of August, 1886, the long ex- 

 pected storm had come at last. A pouring rain 

 from East and North-east, continuing about 

 eighteen hours, had relieved the parched look 

 of tlie prairies in Concho County, and covei'ed 

 them with verdure. 



Several gulls were seen flying across the 

 country, though none were talien, and a con- 

 siderable number of Black Tern, {Hydrochelidon 



