GREAT HORNED OWL. 263 



on, and mankind retire to rest, be sends forth such sounds as 

 seem scarcely to belong to this world, startling the solitary 

 pilgrim as he slumbers by his forest fire — 



Making night hideous. 



Along the mountainous shores of the Ohio, and amidst the 

 deep forests of Indiana, alone, and reposing in the woods, this 

 ghostly watchman has frequently warned me of the approach 

 of morning, and amused me with his singular exclamations, 

 sometimes sweeping down and around my fire, uttering a loud 

 and sudden Waugh ! Waugli ! sufficient to have alarmed 

 a whole garrison. He has other nocturnal solos, no less 

 melodious, one of which very strikingly resembles the half- 

 suppressed screams of a person suffocating or throttled, and 

 cannot fail of being exceedingly entertaining to a lonely be- 

 nighted traveller, in the midst of an Indian wilderness ! 



This species inhabits the country round Hudson's Bay ; and, 

 according to Pennant, who considers it a mere variety of the 

 eagle owl (Strix bubo) of Europe, is found in Kamtschatka ; 

 extends even to the arctic regions, where it is often found 

 white, and occurs as low as Astrakan. It has also been seen 

 white in the United States, but this has doubtless been owing 

 to disease or natural defect, and not to climate. It preys on 



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 

 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 farmyards 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, dis- 

 daining 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 presence. 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." — Ed. 



