GREAT HORNED OWL (Bubo virgin- 
jlanus and subspecies) 
Length, about 22 inches. The great size and 
long ear tufts sufficiently distinguish this owl. 
Range: Resident over the greater part of 
North and South America. 
This, our largest owl, inhabits heavily for- 
ested and unsettled regions and is becoming 
more and more rare in thickly populated areas. 
It is well known by its far-reaching call— 
“hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo”—which is heard best in the 
still small hours of the night, when it echoes 
across the expanse of canyon and forest in the 
far west. 
This owl destroys many partridges and other 
game birds, and unhoused poultry is never safe 
from its nocturnal attacks. Its deeds are those 
of darkness, since usually it hunts only at night, 
though when disturbed in the daytime it can 
see well enough to take good care of itself. 
Its bill of fare is a long one and includes many 
kinds of mammals and birds. It is one of the 
few creatures which when hungry do not hesi- 
tate to attack the skunk, and it appears to have 
no great difficulty in killing this rather for- 
midable little beast. That it does not always 
do so with entire impunity is evident from the 
odor frequently attaching to its feathers. Its 
destruction of rodents entitles it to our grati- 
tude, especially when it kills pocket gophers, 
rats, mice, ground squirrels, and rabbits. 
COOT (Fulica americana) 
Length, about 15 inches. The slate-colored 
plumage, with blackish head and neck, white 
bill, and scalloped toes mark this bird apart 
from all others. 
Range: Breeds from southern Canada south 
to Lower California, Texas, Tennessee, and 
New Jersey; also in southern Mexico and 
Guatemala; winters from southern British Co- 
lumbia, Nevada, Utah, Ohio Valley, and Vir- 
ginia south to Panama. 
The coot, or mud-hen, is a sort of combina- 
tion of duck, gallinule, and rail, and withal is 
a very interesting bird. Fortunately for the 
coot, its flesh is little esteemed, and by many, 
indeed, is considered unfit for human consump- 
tion. The coot is thus passed by in contempt 
by most sportsmen, and in some regions it 1s 
as tame as can well be imagined, swimming 
within a few feet of the observer with entire 
unconcern. Under other circumstances, how- 
ever, as in Louisiana, where it is shot for food 
under the name poule d’eau, it becomes as wild 
as the most wary of ducks. It frequents both 
salt and fresh water, preferably the latter. 
The mud-hen is one of the few American birds 
that occasionally visits the distant Hawaiian 
Islands in fall and winter. Finding conditions 
there to their liking, some of the immigrants, 
probably centuries ago, elected to remain and 
found a new colony, and there, in the fresh- 
water ponds of the island archipelago, their 
descendants still live and thrive. 
The food of the coot consists almost entirely 
of water plants of no use to man. There 
would seem, therefore, to be no excuse for 
killing or disturbing the bird in any way. 
45 
WOOD DUCK (Aix sponsa) 
Length, about 19 inches. The elongated crest 
of feathers and variegated plumage of white 
and brown, spotted with chestnut, ochraceous, 
and steel blue, are characteristic. 
Range: Breeds from Washington to middle 
California, and from Manitoba and southeast- 
ern Canada to Texas and Florida; winters 
chiefly in the United States. 
It can be said of this duck, as of no other, 
that it is our very own, since most of the 
breeding area it occupies is within our terri- 
tory, and by far the greater number of the 
species winter within the United States. The 
story of its former abundance on our ponds 
and streams and of its present scarcity is a sad 
commentary on our improvidence and a warn- 
ing for the future. Happily, it is not yet too 
late to save this most beautiful of our ducks, 
and under proper regulations it may be ex- 
pected not only to hold its own, but to increase 
until it is once more a proper object for the 
skill of sportsmen. Under present conditions 
all true sportsmen should refrain from its fur- 
ther pursuit. 
As is well known, the wood duck is one of 
the few wildfowi that builds its nest in hollow 
trees, and the security thus provided for the 
young is one of the factors to be relied upon 
for the increase of the species. North, south, 
east, and west, the States of every section are, 
or should be, interested in the preservation of 
this distinctively American duck, and should 
make suitable regulations for its welfare and 
see to their enforcement. 
SPOTTED SANDPIPER (Actitis 
macularia) 
Length, about 6 inches. The “tip up,” with 
its brownish gray upper parts and white under 
parts and its teetering motion, is too well 
known to need description. 
Range: Breeds in northwestern Alaska and 
in much of northern Canada south to southern 
California, Arizona, southern Texas, southern 
Louisiana, and northern South Carolina; win- 
ters from California, Louisiana, and South 
Carolina to southern Brazil and Peru. 
The little “tip up,” as it is appropriately 
named, from its quaint nodding motion, unduly 
favors no one section or community, but elects 
to dwell in every region suited to its needs 
from Alaska to Florida. It is doubtless more 
widely known than any other of our shore 
birds, and as it takes wing when disturbed, its 
“wit, wit” comes to us from beach, river side, 
and mill pond, from one end of the land to the 
other. It is the only shore bird that habitually 
nests in cornfields and pastures, and its hand- 
some buff eggs spotted with chocolate are well 
known to the farmer’s boy everywhere. Much 
is to be said in favor of the food habits of the 
little tip up, as the bird includes in its diet 
army worms, squash bugs, cabbage worms, 
grasshoppers, green flies, and crayfishes. Hav- 
ing thus earned a right to be numbered among 
the farmers’ friends, the bird should be exempt 
from persecution. 
