BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 117 



utters a shriek so horrid that the woods around echo to its dismal 

 sound. u Now, it seems as if you heard the barking of a cur dog; 

 again the notes are so rough and mingled together that they might be 

 mistaken for the last gurglings of a murdered person striving in vain 

 to call for assistance ; at another time, when not more than fifty yards 

 distant, it utters its more usual hoo, hoo, hoo-e,in so peculiar an under- 

 tone that a person unacquainted with the notes of this species might 

 easily conceive them to be produced by an Owl more than a mile dis- 

 tant. During the utterance of all these unmusical cries it moves its 

 body, and more particularly its head, in various ways, putting them 

 into positions, all of which appear to please it much, however gro- 

 tesque they may seem to the eye of man. In the interval following 

 each cry, it snaps its bill." Audubon. 



These Owls, like the preceding species, are not migratory and when 

 not engaged in breeding lead a solitary existence. Although chiefly 

 nocturnal in habits, Great Horned Owls are often seen in cloudy 

 weather and in the early twilight searching for food. On one occa- 

 sion, when the sun was shining brightly (about 10 A. M.), I saw one of 

 these owls make two attempts to catch a hen and her young chicks. 



FOOD. 



Audubon says : Its food consists chiefly of the larger species of 

 gallinaceous birds, half-grown Wild Turkeys, Pheasants and domestic 

 poultry of all kinds, together with several species of ducks. Hares, 

 young opossums and squirrels are equally agreeable to it, and when- 

 ever chance throws a dead fish on the shore the Great Horned Owl 

 feeds with peculiar avidity on it." 



Gentry, in Life Histories of Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania, says: 

 u The food of this species consists of small quadrupeds, small birds 

 and insects. The poultry-yards are not safe from its nocturnal rav- 

 ages. Instances are known where, in the course of a few nights, entire 

 roosts have been completely destroyed. The food of the young at 

 first consists of fragments of the animals and reptiles taken captive, 

 besides various lepidopterous and coleopterous insects. 1 ' 



Nuttall tells us they usually prey on young rabbits, squirrels, rats, 

 mice, quails and small birds of various kinds ; and when these resources 

 fail or diminish, they occasionally prowl pretty boldly around the 

 farm-yard in quest of chickens, which they seize on the roost. 



Nuttall further writes : My friend Dr. Boykin, of Georgia, says a 

 Great Horned Owl, prowling around his premises, saw a cat dozing on 

 the roof of a smoke-house, and supposing grimalkin a more harmless, 

 rabbit-like animal than appeared in the sequel, blindly snatched her 

 up in his talons, but, finding he had caught a Tartar, it was not long 

 before he allowed puss once more to tread the ground." 



