THE GIIEAT HORNED OWL 



223 



GREAT HORNED OWL. 

 With "horns " laid back in anger. 



2 quail, I pinnated grouse, 1 pigeon, 1 rail, 1 

 wild duck, 1 Cooper's hawk, and 2 unknown. 



The mammals found were as follows : 46 mice 

 and rats, 32 rabbits and hares, 7 shrews, F> squir- 

 rels, 3 chipmunks, 4 pocket-gophers, 2 skunks, 1 

 weasel and 1 bat. 



Beyond question, the debit balance against 

 this bird is heavy, and justifies its destruction, 

 wherever found; but at the same time, it goes 

 against the grain to kill a bird which destroys 

 so many rats. 



The Great Horned Owl, or Hoot-Owl, as it is 

 frequently called, is a bird of dignified and im- 

 posing appearance. Its big, round-topped horns 

 of feathers are singularly like cats' ears in shape, 

 and when with these are seen the fiercely-glaring 

 eyes of yellow and black, the half-yellow face 

 and fluffy white feathers on the throat, the whole 

 head of this bird is singularly like that of a Ben- 

 gal tiger. The body plumage is a complex mot- 

 tling and barring of black and brown, dull yellow 

 and white, impossible to describe successfully. 



But this bird can always be recognized by its 

 large size, cat's-ear "horns," and the fine, black 

 horizontal bars across its breast-feathers. From 

 wing to wing, across its upper breast there is an 

 assemblage of heavy splashes of black. 



The eastern Great Horned Owl is the type 

 species on which are based the Western, Arctic, 

 Dusky and Pacific Horned Owls, which in com- 



But let us give even the Horned Owl its just 

 due. Mr. 0. E. Niles, of Ohio, once found in a 

 nest of this bird "several full-grown Norway 

 rats with their skulls opened and brains removed," 

 and on the ground under the tree which contained 

 the nest he found "the bodies of one hundred and 

 thirteen rats, most of them full grown!" Now, 

 in the course of a year, would not one hundred 

 and thirteen Norway rats consume and destroy 

 enough grain to feed one hundred and ten head 

 of poultry? 



This is the summary of the contents of 127 

 stomachs of Great Horned Owls examined by 

 the Biological Survey: 31 contained poultry or 

 game-birds; 8 contained other birds; 13 con- 

 tained mice; 65 contained other mammals; 1 

 contained a fish; 1 contained a scorpion; 10 

 contained insects, and 17 contained nothing. 



The bird-food represented the following: 21 

 domestic birds, 11 song-birds, 3 ruffed grouse, 



Photographed by E. R. Warren. 



YOUNG GREAT HORNED OW 



LS. 



