266 GREAT HORNED OWL. 



nests, after the young had flown, were found the heads and 

 bones of two chickens, the legs and head of the golden-winged 

 woodpecker, and part of the wings and feathers of several 

 other birds. It is generally conjectured that they hatch but 

 once in the season. 



The length of the male of this species is twenty inches ; the 

 bill is large, black, and strong, covered at the base with a cere ; 

 the eyes, golden yellow ; the horns are three inches in length, 

 and very broad, consisting of twelve or fourteen feathers, their 

 webs black, broadly edged with bright tawny ; face, rusty, 

 bounded on each side by a band of black ; space between the 

 eyes and bill, whitish ; whole lower parts elegantly marked 

 with numerous transverse bars of dusky on a bright tawny 

 ground, thinly interspersed with white ; vent, pale yellow 

 ochre, barred with narrow lines of brown ; legs and feet large, 

 and covered with feathers or hairy down of a pale brown 

 colour ; claws, very large, blue black ; tail, rounded, extending 

 about an inch beyond the tips of the wings, crossed with six 

 or seven narrow bars of brown, and variegated or marbled 

 with brown and tawny ; whole upper parts finely pencilled 

 with dusky, on a tawny and whitish ground ; chin, pure white, 

 under that a band of brown, succeeded by another narrow one 

 of white ; eyes, very large. 



The female is full two feet in length, and has not the white 

 on the throat so pure. She has also less of the bright ferru- 

 ginous or tawny tint below ; but is principally distinguished 

 by her superior magnitude. 



