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pond, steel traps set on top of these, and several owls were 

 captured. After that the fish ceased to disappear. 



William Unruh, an old-timer who lived in the County 

 many years ago, had a curious experience with a Horned Owl 

 about 1875. He was camped in the mountains near Colorado 

 Springs in the winter, and lounging by his campfire in the even- 

 ing he made some movements of his head which caused his 

 heavy beard to move about, and to his great surprise a Horned 

 Owl suddenly pounced down upon his beard and seized it. 

 Unruh grasped the bird by its legs and killed it, and brought 

 it to town to Aiken. 



There seem to be two forms of the Horned Owls in the 

 County, a lighter colored bird which lives and breeds on the 

 plains, following the streams a short distance into the moun- 

 tains, living in the cottonwoods, and a darker bird which lives 

 in the heavy timber of the mountains to timberline. While 

 the female of these rtiountain birds is as large as the female 

 of the plains form, the male is proportionately much smaller. 



Bubo virginianus subarcticus. Arctic Horned Owl. 



Rare winter visitor. 



Four or five owls of this form have come into Aiken's 

 hands during the past forty years. One submitted to Ridgway 

 was referred to this subspecies. 



Nyctea nyctea. Snowy Owl. 



Winter visitor; rare. Two El Paso County specimens 

 have been brought to Aiken, one killed somewhere on the 

 Divide about 1875-77, the other near Ramah, about 1883. Be- 

 sides these one was taken at or near Calhan in 1898, and one 

 was described to him as killed on the Bates Ranch between 

 March 20 and 28, 1899. Two years ago a man named Light- 

 ner spent part of the winter at the Half- Way House on the 

 Pike's Peak Railway, and saw a Snowy Owl near there sev- 

 eral times, though he did not shoot it. 



