8 



THE) OOLOGIST 



of the nest, and that the Horned Owl 

 was making a winter home of it, while 

 the hawks were spending their winter 

 in the States. 



I knew another old hawk's nest in 

 a northeasterly direction from my 

 home, and I was sure of the owls be- 

 ing in possession there also, as I 

 had heard their hooting from that di- 

 rection every night. So one cold hut 

 pleasant morning, Mrs. Norman, Mr. 

 Puspanen and myself headed three 

 pair of skis to a northerly direction 

 from my home. Following an old 

 moose trail through the bush and tak- 

 ing a bee-line across Stony Lake we. 

 were soon at our destination. The 

 owls were there of course. The nest 

 was 54 feet up on a dead black poplar. 

 It contained three eggs, incubation 

 started. Average size of the eggs: 

 2.13x1.81. Date, March 29, 1914. There 

 was still another nest about a mile 

 away from the last named one. We 

 visited it but found it unoccupied. 



That night we did not hear the owls 

 hooting; evidently they were mourn- 

 ing their loss. But the following even- 

 ing the hooting started again, but this 

 time from a new direction, exactly 

 from the direction where the old un- 

 occupied nest was. From that minute 

 I was sure that the owls had moved 

 and that they were getting ready to 

 present me another set of eggs. I 

 left them entirely to themselves, and 

 every night they were giving me some 

 hair-raising hoots, as to assure me of 

 the fact that they were there. On 

 the 19th of April, or just three weeks 

 after we visited their first nest, we 

 took a trip to the new habitat of these 

 owls, and sure enough, there we found" 

 them both, the female in the nest and 

 the male sitting at the top of a tall, 

 dead spruce. 



The eggs were only two this time; 

 rather smaller than those in the first 

 set of these same birds, averaging 2.16 



xl.80. Nest, 45 feet up in a dead, 

 black poplar. Incubation fresh. The 

 female was rather bold this time, 

 thinking perhaps that we were awfully 

 cheeky to come and rob her of her 

 treasures a second time, she flew 

 about us and came so near that John 

 could not resist the temptation, but 

 had to send a bullet through her wing. 

 Her belly was like that of an old 

 broody hen, entirely without feathers. 

 Yet she is mounted and a beautiful 

 specimen she is; after giving us five 

 eggs, she gc.ve us her life in the bar- 

 gain. 



But now I am coming to what ap- 

 pears to me to be the most important 

 point in this episode. When this bird 

 was opened and the intestines exam- 

 ined, the reader may guess my sur- 

 prise, when I found five more yolks in 

 the oviduct. Two of these were about 

 the size of Sparrow Hawk's eggs and 

 three still smaller ones, like small 

 marbles in size. This discovery leads 

 to this question: How many eggs 

 would the Horned Owl lay in one 

 season, if made to do her best? I am 

 of the opinion that, if this particular 

 bird had not been killed, she would 

 have laid a third set of two eggs in 

 another three weeks' time, as the two 

 largest yolks in the oviduct were al- 

 most as large as the yolks in a perfect 

 egg, they were simply minus the white 

 and the shell. 



Whether she still would have laid 

 a fourth set of three, or whether she 

 would have considered it too late in 

 the season, I will not venture to say. 

 Now I am asking myself another ques- 

 tion: What will become of these im- 

 mature yolks when the bird's first in- 

 cubation is not disturbed? Would be 

 pleased to have someone else, with 

 more knowledge in anatomy, give his 

 views on this rather unsettled ques- 

 tion. 



In conclusion, I may say that the 



