164 Bird-Lore 



heard issuing from the swamps or woodlands. Its notes are something Hke 

 the syllables, whoo, hoo-hoo-hoo, whooo, whooo. Sometimes the bird emits a 

 piercing, blood-curdling scream that is very disconcerting to the city-bred 

 person who hears it for the first time. These notes may be given as love-calls,, 

 as a challenge to its rivals, or, again, perhaps, for the mere pleasure of hearing 

 itself speak. It would seem that these deep-toned notes, rolling through the- 

 silent night air, would serve to frighten into hiding all game within hearing, 

 but I have known those who contended that at times the Owl hoots for the pur- 

 pose of helping to discover its prey, as for example when trying to locate a. 

 rabbit which it has seen but a moment before, and which is now crouched low 

 hoping to escape detection. The claim is made that the sudden hoot of the- 

 Owl so frightens the rabbit as to cause it to shudder or jump or make some 

 other involuntary movement that betrays its exact location to the keen-eyed 

 watcher of the tree above. In any event, this Owl engages in much hooting^, 

 not only in the mating season but at other times of year, and in regions where- 

 the species are abundant, its weird and awe-inspiring serenades are one of the 

 common sounds of the wilderness. 



The Great Horned Owl lives well, for it appears to eat almost every form of 

 animal life that it can overpower and capture. It eats many birds, and in 

 hunting them has every advantage, for it may come upon the Robin, King- 

 fisher, Crow, or even large Hawks while they are asleep. What bird can escape- 

 its fearful claws? It is very destructive to game-birds, especially the various 

 species of Grouse found throughout the northern woods and the mountains of 

 the South. It is very fond of visiting the vicinity of farmhouses at night and 

 carrying off the hens and guinea-fowl, or even killing young turkeys that have- 

 been foolish enough to go to roost in the open. 



While a boy, I remember one entering our poultry-house and killing a hen. 

 She gave only two or three terrified squawks, but my father chanced to hear 

 these and ran out to see what was robbing the poultry-roost. We had many 

 robbers in those days — skunks, opossums, and sometimes human thieves — so 

 when the scream of a hen pierced the midnight gloom, it was customary for my 

 father to seize his gun and rush out to investigate. On this occasion he first 

 closed the small door near the ground by which the hens entered, and them 

 opening the large door and holding the lantern aloft he beheld an Owl standing 

 on a hen that was lying on the floor of the chicken-house. Its great eyes, 

 gleamed and winked in the sudden light, and it popped its bill, perhaps in an 

 effort to frighten him away. 



One interesting feature of this particular Owl I well remember. It was 

 highly scented with musk from a skunk. Perhaps earlier in the evening, or 

 maybe the night before, it had caught one of these black-and-white wood 

 pussies. 



In the southern states, Great Horned Owls capture many opossums, and 

 one of their easiest victims is the rabbit. In some parts of the country rabbits 



