238 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



collecting basket, were out in the clear once more. But we got 

 there, and his mounted owlship long adorned the top shelf of my 

 book-case at home afterward. 



Bendire in his work devotes a long paragraph describing the 

 defiant attitudes assumed by this species, when annoyed or sur- 

 prised, after it is aware that it has been discovered. One of 

 these attitudes is beautifully shown in Fig. 60 of this chapter 

 Frequently they are even more ferocious-appearing than this, 

 and in one instance I secured a photograph that shows the bird 

 all putted up like a great, round ball of feathers. This picture I 

 will publish in some other connection. 



Owls both screech and hoot, but they likewise make a great 

 many other kinds of notes and noises, some of which are by no 

 means unpleasing to the ear. Nearly all of them snap their 

 mandibles together when irritated, an action ofteu followed by 

 hissing sounds in some species, with certain bobbings and nod- 

 dings of the head most ludicrous to behold. Short-eared owls, at 

 variance with most all other Strigidce, are birds that frequent the 

 more open parts of the country, are largely diurnal in habit, 

 spend the greater part of their time, while not on the wing, on 

 the ground, where, usually in April, this species builds its nest 

 of grass in which it lays from four to seven eggs. Small ro- 

 dents, rarely birds, constitute the food of the Short-eared owl, 

 and in so far as man's interests are involved, the bird is deserv- 

 ing of his best protection. Upon several occasions I have shot 

 this species on cold moonlit winter's nights, when they flew low 

 over the snow hunting for mice. Two I especially remember 

 now that I shot in the winter of 1S72, near New Canaan, Conn., 

 on such a night, as they flew circling about a great vacant field, 

 with not a tree in it. Whenever one of the pair passed me it 

 would rise higher in the air, and give utterance to a peculiar 

 clucking noise, probably prompted by its surprise. 



Of all the owls in this country, the biggest of body, and by 

 all odds the most destructive and powerful is the well-known 

 Great Horned Owl, called also in certain localities the Cat or 

 Hoot Owl (Bubo virginianus), a species which has a geographical 

 range through eastern North America, south to Costa Rica. 

 Three subspeciflc forms are also known of this bird, namely, the 

 Western Horned Owl (H. v. subarcticus), the Arctic Horned 

 Owl (B. v. arcticus), and the Dusky Horned Owl (B. v. satura- 

 tux) of the Pacific coast region. As in the rase of the majority 



