146 THE GREAT HORNED OWL. 



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, little preparation 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 neighbourhood of a farm, after the breeding season; but as 

 almost every detached farm is visited by one of these dangerous and power- 

 ful marauders, it may be said to be abundant. The havoc which it commits 

 is very great. I have 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 Tur- 

 keys 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 undaunted courage, protruding 

 its powerful talons, and snapping its bill, as long as he continues in its pre- 

 sence. On these occasions, its large goggle eyes are seen to open and close 

 in quick succession, and the feathers of its body, being raised, swell out its 

 apparent bulk to nearly double the natural size. 



Great Horned-Owl, Strix Virginiana, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vi. p. 52. 



Strix Virginiania, Bonap. Syn., p. 37. 



Great Horned-Owl or Cat Owl, Strix Virginiania, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 124. 



Great Horned-Owl, Strix Virgimana, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. i. p. 313; vol. v. p. 393. 



Upper part of the head brownish-black, mottled with light brown, the 

 tufts of the same colour, margined with brown; face brownish-red, with a 

 circle of blackish-brown; upper parts undulatingly banded and minutely 

 mottled with brownish-black and yellowish-red, behind tinged with grej'; 

 wings and tail light brownish-yellow, barred and mottled with blackish- 

 brown and light brownish-red; chin white; upper part of throat light reddish, 

 spotted with black, a band of white across the middle of fore neck; its lower 

 part and the breast light yellowish-red, barred with deep brown, as are the 

 lower parts generally; several longitudinal brownish-black patches on the 

 lower fore neck; tarsal feathers light yellowish-red, obscurely barred. 



Male, 23. 56. Female, 25, 60. 



