100 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



a quivering, weird quality (familiar in the screech- 

 owl's notes), we can be sure it comes from one of the 

 larger owls. It is, in fact, the voice of the great 

 homed owl {Buio virginianus), a big, brown-and- 

 ocher-colored bird, mottled with black, and remark- 

 able for his tufted ears, the conspicuous feathers on 

 which stand out fully two inches beyond the contour 

 of his head. 



Mr. Frank M. Chapman calls this owl, just as 

 many another ornithologist does, "a tiger among 

 birds." The creature is a terror to small birds, poul- 

 try, squirrels, mice, and rabbits. But he is not quite 

 so destructive to the inmates of the henhouse as he is 

 made out to be. On the average, not more than one 

 owl in four steals a chicken ; all the others feed on 

 mice, moles, and other such harmful creatures which 

 live on the farm. 



One of the first voices of spring is that of the 

 horned owl ; it is not a cheerful one, but it is a pre- 

 sage of warm days to come, and is therefore welcome. 



Here are the notes of an owl ^^ 



I heard hooting in May last : | TO " -J J , J , j 



There is but one domi- "' '"o", oo, o"^ oo^ 

 nant tone to the song ; my grace-notes, of course, 

 only indicating a certain modulation of the voice, do 

 not indicate a second tone. One of the most extreme 

 instances of modulation in a bird's voice is mani- 



