314 GREAT HORNED OWL. 



rifle, he takes aim, touches the trigger, and the next instant sees the foe 

 faUing dead to the ground. The bird is unworthy of his farther atten- 

 tion, and is left a prey to some prowhng oppossum or other carnivorous 

 quadruped. Again, all around is tranquillity. In this manner falls 

 many a Great Horned Owl on our frontiers, where the species abounds. 



Differences of locaUty are no security against its depredations, for it 

 occurs in the highest mountainous districts, as well as in the low alluvial 

 lands that border the rivers, in the interior of the country, and in the 

 neighbourhood of the sea^shore. Every where it finds abundance of food. 

 It is, moreover, an extremely hardy bird, and stands the severest winters 

 of our northernmost latitudes. It is consequently found dispersed over 

 all parts of the United States. 



The flight of the Great Horned Owl is elevated, rapid and graceful. 

 It sails with apparent ease, and in large circles, in the manner of an eagle, 

 rises and descends without the least difficulty, by merely inchning its 

 wings or its tail, as it passes through the air. Now and then, it glides 

 silently close over the earth, with incomparable velocity, and drops, as if 

 shot dead, on the prey beneath. At other times, it suddenly alights on 

 the top' of a fence-stake or a dead stump, shakes its feathers, arranges 

 them, and utters a skriek so horrid that the woods around echo to its dis- 

 mal sound. Now, it seems as if you heard the barking of a cur-dog ; 

 again, the notes are so rough and mingled together, that they might be 

 mistaken for the last gurglings of a murdered person, striving in vain to 

 call for assistance ; at another time, when not more than fifty yards dis- 

 tant, it utters its more usual hoo, hoo, Jtoo-e, in so peculiar an under tone, 

 that a person unacquainted with the notes of this species might easily 

 -conceive them to be produced by an Owl more than a mile distant. Du- 

 ring the utterance of all these unmusical cries, it moves its body, and 

 more particularly its head, in various ways, putting them into positions, 

 all of which appear to please it much, however grotesque they may seem 

 to the eye of man. In the interval following each cry, it snaps its biU, 

 as if by way of amusement ; or, like the wild boar sharpening the edges 

 of his tusks, it perhaps expects that the action will whet its mandibles. 



The food of the Great Horned Owl consists chiefly of the larger spe- 

 cies of gallinaceous birds, half-grown Wild Turkeys, Pheasants, and do- 

 mestic poultry of all kinds, together with several species of Ducks. 

 Hares, yovmg Oppossums and Squirrels are equally agreeable to it, and 



