GREAT HORNED OWL. 437 
amused me with his singular exclamations, sometimes sweeping 
down and around my fire, uttering a loud and sudden Waugh O! 
Waugh O ! sufficient to have alarmed a whole garrison. He has other 
nocturnal solos, no less melodious, one of which very strikingly resem- 
bles the half-suppressed screams of a person suffocating, or throttled, 
and cannot fail of being exceedingly entertaining to a lonely, benighted 
traveller, in the midst of an Indian wilderness! 
This species inhabits the country round Hudson’s Bay ; and accord- 
ing to Pennant, who considers it a mere variety of the Eagle Owl 
(Strix bubo) of Europe, is found in Kamtschatka; extends even to the 
by six bars of umber brown, about half as broad as the intervening spaces; their 
tips are white. 4 
“ Under surface.— Chin, white. Throat, crossed by the band above mentioned, 
behind which there is a large space of pure snow white, that is bounded on the 
breast by blotches of liver brown, situated on the tips of the feathers. The belly 
and long plumage of the flanks are white, crossed by narrow, regular bars of dark 
brown. The vent-feathers, under tail-coverts, thighs, and feet, are pure white. 
The linings of the wings are also white, with the exception of a brown spot on the 
tips of the greater interior coverts.” 
Audubon has the following remarks on their incubation, which are somewhat at 
ae with Wilson. It would also appear that this bird makes love during 
the day. 
“ Ea ly in February, the Great Horned Owls are seen to pair. The curious 
evolutions of the male in the air, or his motions when he-has alighted near his be- 
loved, it is impossible to describe. His bowings, and the snappings of his bill, are 
extremely ludicrous ; and no sooner is the female assured that the attentions paid 
her by the beau are the result of a sincere affection, than she joins in the motions 
of ber future mate. ; ; 
“ The nest, which is very bulky, is usually fixed on a large, horizontal branch, not 
far from the trunk of the tree. Wis composed externally of crooked sticks, and is 
lined with coarse grasses and some feathers. The whole measures nearly three 
feet in diameter. The eggs, which are from three to six, are almost globular in 
form, and of a dull white color. The male assists the female in sitting on the eggs. 
Only one brood is raised in the season. The young remain in the nest until fully 
fledged, and afterwards follow the parents for a considerable time, uttering a mourn- 
ful sound, to induce them to supply them with food. They acquire the full plumage 
of the old birds in the first spring, and until then are considerably lighter, with more 
dull buff in their tints. I Have found nests belonging to this species in large hollows 
of decayed trees, and twice in the fissures of rocks. In all these cases, fittle prep- 
aration had been made previous to the laying of the eggs, as I found only a few 
grasses and feathers placed under them. 
“The Great Horned Owl lives retired, and it is seldom that more than one is 
found in the neighborhood of a farm, after the breeding season ; but as almost every 
detached farm is visited by one of these dangerous and powerful marauders, it may 
be said to be abundant. The havock which it commits is very great. Ihave known 
a plantation almost stripped of the whole of the poultry raised upon it during spring, 
by one of these daring foes of the feathered race, in the course of the ensuing 
winter. 
“This species is very powerful, and equally spirited. It attacks wild Turkeys 
when half grown,.and often masters them. Mallards, Guinea-Fowls, and common 
barn-fowls, prove an easy prey; and on seizing them, it carries them off in its 
talons from the farm-yards to the interior of the woods. When wounded it exhibits 
a revengeful tenacity of spirit, scarcely surpassed by any of the noblest of the Eagle 
tribe, disdaining to scramble away like the Barred Owl, but facing its enemy with 
andaunted courage, protruding its powerful talons, and snapping its bill, as long as 
he continues in its presence. On these occasions, its large goggle eyes are seen to 
open and close in ee succession, and the feathers of its body, being raised, swell 
out its apparent bulk to nearly double the natural size.” — Ev. 
37* 
