BIRDS OF PREY. Owls 



of our common Owls (the rare Great Gray Owl alone being 

 larger), it is a bird of the deep woods, swift in flight and 

 ferocious in the extreme, both in seizing large game as 

 well as in fighting when disabled. A nocturnal species, it 

 can see perfectly in bright sunlight, though it prefers to 

 remain secluded. During the nesting-season, if the weather 

 is cloudy, it searches for food both day and night. 



It is the most destructive of Owls and of all the birds of 

 prey except perhaps the Goshawk and Cooper's Hawk. Dr. 

 Merriam, in speaking of its mischief in the farmyard, says, 

 "Indeed I have known one to kill and decapitate three 

 turkeys and several hens in a single night, leaving the 

 bodies uninjured and fit for the table." (In common with 

 many other birds of prey, it prefers the brain to any other 

 portion of the victim.) This savage Owl also destroys vast 

 quantities of large game-birds and may be safely considered 

 undesirable from the standpoint of the small farmer, how- 

 ever much it may aid the tiller of vast fields by its destruc- 

 tion of vermin. 



I have seen the Great Homed Owl sit in the daytime 

 with its inner eyelids closed, and then suddenly open 

 them, blink once or twice, and fly away, snapping its beak 

 angrily. Its hooting cry, uttered in the bare woods in 

 early spring, is one of the most weird, uncanny sounds in 

 Nature. Icicles often hang from its nest; and ice still locks 

 the streams as it sweeps about, suggesting every form of 

 dark emotion by its voice, — mocking laughter, despair, and 

 a choking rattle, — until you feel that the Wild Huntsman 

 may be galloping through the shadows blowing his fatal 

 horn. 



Snowy Owl: Nyctea nyctea. 

 Arctic Owl. 



px * TIC 4 



Length: 20-24 inches. 



Male and Female : Plumage varying from pure white to white barred 

 and spotted with brown and black. No ear tufts. Legs and 

 toes thickly feathered. Bill and claws black. Female larger; 

 young darker and more spotted. 

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