Plate LIX. 



Fig. 4, BUBO VIRGINIANUS-Greai Homed Owl. 



The Great Horned Owl is a common resident species throughout the State, and in some sections is 

 nearly as numerous and as well known as the Screech Owl. It usually nests in February, and rears but 

 one brood during the year. 



LOCALITY : 



The nest is generally situated in a tall tree in dark and retired woods. The timber in river-bottoms 

 and uplands is each frequented, but the species prefers especially the large and gnarly sycamores which 

 grow along the banks of rivers and creeks. Exceptionally the nest is built in an isolated tree, or in 

 one of a small clump of trees a half a mile or more distant from the nearest timber-land. 



I have several times found it in low trees in cultivated fields. 



POSITION: 



The largest and tallest trees are commonly selected for the nest, the chosen site being a cavern- 

 ous limb or trunk, or a perpendicular or horizontal fork formed by three or four branches, from thirty 

 to sixty feet above the ground. I recently found a nest in the crotch of a honey-locust tree which was 

 exceptionally low, its height being but sixteen feet. 



MATERIALS : 



When the nest is in a hollow tree the materials of which it is composed consist chiefly of weed- 

 stems, corn-husks, corn-silk, leaves, feathers from the mother-bird, and other pliable material in greater 

 or less quantity, according to the size of the cavity and the individual fancy of the builders. I have 

 heard of an instance where the eggs were laid upon the soft decayed wood which had accumulated in the 

 interior of an old tree-trunk. The composition of the nest when built among the branches differs from 

 the above description only in the addition of a foundation of coarse sticks. These are necessitated by 

 the position and are worked into a rough platform like that in the nest of the Crow or some of the 

 larger Hawks. A nest taken in February 1882, is composed and measures as follows : Position, crotch 

 of Elm tree. Height, forty feet. Foundation, coarse twigs varying from a few inches to a foot and a half 

 in length, and from one-sixteenth to three-eighths of an inch in diameter. Superstructure, grasses, rootlets, 

 sod, weed stems, oak-leaves, corn-husks, and similar flexible materials intertwined and felted. Lining- 

 grasses and feathei^s from the breast of the builders. The structure resembles the nest of the Crow in 

 size as well as in materials and mode of construction. The cavity is shallow measuring but two inches 

 in depth. Its diameter is about eight inches. 



EGGS: 



Two or three eggs compose the complement. Two are found oftener than any other number. The 



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