NIGHT AND DAY HUNTERS 177 



sunrise, more rarely still by day, sometimes from a solitary 

 hooter, sometimes in a duet sung out of time. Every one 

 knows the hoot, but few people who know its voice will ever 

 see its smooth rotmd head and bland, almost human face. 

 One hears it most frequently at the nesting season. Once 

 in a very great while this owl gives a shriek to make one's 

 blood curdle. Many of us have attracted the bird by 

 imitating its notes. Because the voice of the great horned 

 owl, that "Lord High Executioner," is so like it, the barred 

 owl is credited with its larger kinsman's atrocities and 

 shot. Its own talons are not wholly guUtless of innocent 

 blood, to be sure, since out of one hundred and nine 

 stomachs examined for the Department of Agriculture, 

 five contained young poultry or game, and thirteen other 

 birds; but more than one third contained mice and other 

 small mammals; frogs, fish, Hzards, and insects fiUed the 

 remainder, which goes to prove that, in. spite of the average 

 farmer's behef to the contrary, this owl renders him posi- 

 tive service. 



"As useless as a last year's nest," can have no meaning to 

 a pair of these hardy owls that go about toward the end of 

 winter looking for a deserted woodpecker's nest]or a hawk's, 

 crow's, or squirrel's bulky cradle in some tree-top. Ever 

 after they hold it as their own. They are the largest 

 common owls of the family, and few dispossessed owners 

 care to dispute their rights. 



The Short-eared Owl 



Length — 14 to 17 inches; female the larger. 

 Male and Female — ^Ear tufts inconspicuous; face disk white, 

 or nearly so, minutely speckled with blackish, and with 



