THE AMERICAN LONG-EARED OWL. 331 



Their hunting- is done ahnost entirely at night, while the clays are spent 

 in shady and dark places, among the heavier and denser undergrowth, or in 

 bushy trees in the neighborhood of water. 



In the daytime, particularly on a bright sunny day, the Long-eared Owl 

 will allow itself to be closely approached, and on discovering the intruder 

 will try to make itself look slender and long by pressing the feathers, which 

 are usually somewhat puffed out, close to the body and sitting very erect 

 and still. It might in such a position be readily mistaken for a part of the 

 limb upon which it may be sitting. 



Occasionally, while on the ground, for instance, and being suddenly dis- 

 turbed at a meal, they throw themselves into quite a different attitude — one 

 of defiance, making themselves look much larger than they really are, and 

 presenting a fierce and formidable front. I nearly stepped on one of them 

 once while it was busily engaged in killing a ground squirrel wliich it evi- 

 dently had just caught. The Owl was sitting by the side of a fallen pine 

 tree and as I stepped over it my foot was planted within 12 inches of the 

 bird; she evidently had not heard me approaching, nor had I any idea of 

 her presence until almost on her, and was consequently about as much 

 startled as the bird itself, owing in part to the instantaneous transformation 

 that took place before my eyes. All at once she seemed to expand to sev- 

 eral times her normal size; every feather raised and standing at a right 

 angle from the body; the wings were fully spread, thrown up, and obliquely 

 backward, their outer edges touching each other over and behind the head, 

 which likewise looked abnormally large, and this sudden change in appear- 

 ance, combined with the hissing noise which she uttered, made it appear 

 a very formidable object at first sight. I presume she intended at first to 

 stand her ground, but changing her mind quickly and collapsing to her 

 normal size, flew off, leaving- her quarry behind. 



The Long-eared Owl nests rather early. In the southern portions of its 

 range nidification commences sometimes in the latter part of February. Mr. 

 F. Stephens took a set of six eggs from an old Crow's nest in southern 

 California on March 2, 1879, the earliest date known to me. In the Middle 

 States it may begin laying in the latter part of March, but more often about 

 the first week in April, and in late seasons sometimes not until the first week 

 in May. These dates hold good also for Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. 

 In Montana they rarely begin to lay before May 1. 



I believe that but a single brood is raised in a season. Incubation 

 usually commences with the first egg laid, the eggs being deposited at inter- 

 vals of a day or two. If the first set is taken, a second and somewhat smaller 

 one, and even a third is laid, frequently iji the same nest. Incubation lasts 

 about three weeks; tlie young are covered with thick grayish white down 

 when first hatched and are usually of different sizes, showing that they are 

 not all hatched the same day. 



