THE OOLOGIST 



127 



afterwards took a nice set of Gos- 

 hawks from one of these nests so 

 that afternoon tramp was well re- 

 warded. April 11th I retaurned and 

 took a set of two Great Gray Owl's 

 eggs. The bird remained in the 

 vicinity while I was climbing the tree 

 and packing the eggs, and then re- 

 turned to the nest and resumed set- 

 ting. 



The only note uttered was a whis- 

 tle oo-ich of the Great Horned Owl. 

 The nest was in an aspen poplar, 

 about forty-five feet up. There was 

 no lining material but a few feathers 

 from the breast of the sitting bird. 



On April 22nd I discovered a Great 

 Gray Owl sitting on a nest from 

 which I had taken a set of Goshawks 

 in 1913 and a set of Great H-orned 

 Owls from in 1914. The bird would 

 not leave the nest until I rapped the 

 tree repeatedly and remained in the 

 vicinity while I climbed the tree and 

 took a set of three eggs. It hooted 

 twice a deep booming whoo-oo al- 

 together different to the Horned Owl. 

 When I left it returned and resumed 

 setting. This nest also was in heavy 

 poplar woods in an aspen poplar. It 

 was about fifty feet up and no nest- 

 ing material had been added but a 

 few feathers as usual. 



On Ma:y 15th I took another set of 

 two eggs, from a small nest of sticks 

 which had been used by a Broad- 

 wing the year previous and in this 

 case also no nesting material but a 

 few -feathers had been added by the 

 Owls. The nest w^as about forty feet 

 up in an aspen poplar. 



This finished my nesting experi- 

 ences with the Great Gray Owl, un- 

 til 1922. In 1916-1917 and 18 I was 

 in the Peace River Country, and al- 

 though old Hawks' nest were very 

 numerous in some localities, and I 

 saw a few Great Gray Owls I found 

 no nests occupied except in the case 



of a few Red-tailed Hawks, and one 

 Goshawk. No doubt this was due to 

 the scarcity of rabbits. In a year of 

 rabbit abundance there would be an 

 influx of birds of prey and many of 

 these nests would be occupied. 



On April 20th, 1922, I climbed to a 

 Great Gray Owl's nest near where 1 

 took the last one in 1915. It con- 

 tained two eggs which I left. One 

 Owl was sitting and I saw the other 

 close by. On April 30th, I returned 

 and took a set of three eggs. The 

 nest was about forty feet up in the 

 crotch of a Balsam Poplar and un- 

 like the other nests had been newly 

 built up with twigs, by the Owls. 



It was lined \\ith back strips and 

 a few feathers and well cupped. The 

 bird remained in the vicinity and its 

 mate could be heard at a distance in 

 the timber. A rather musical whistle 

 was uttered frequently like oo-ih, 

 sometimes very softly, and at others 

 quite loudly. They also hooted sev- 

 eral times, a deep booming Who-oo- 

 oo-oo. 



In Fisher's "Hawks and Owls of 

 the United States," it is stated "The 

 note of the owl is said to be a tre- 

 mulous vibrating sound somewhat re- 

 semhling that of the Screech Owl." 

 I must plead ignorance to the note 

 of the Screech Owl, but I have ob- 

 .served many Great Gray Owls both 

 in the breeding season and out of it 

 and have never heard this "tremulous 

 vibrating whistle." 



A. D. Henderson, 

 Belvedere, Alberta, Canada 



"^^y-. 



