231
*
Lake Umbagog.
Whale-back Cove.
1897.
Sept. 7
(No 5)
by short flights sometimes alighting on the tops of the
dead trees but ordinarily choosing a perch on some short
lateral prong about [delete]midway of[/delete] halfway up the tree. Sometimes one
would follow the other closely often alighting within a
yard or two of it on the same tree or even the same
branch. At other times they would separate & range about
independently. Whenever this happened the calling would
be kept up by both until they came together again.
I repeatedly saw them utter this cry. The mouth was
opened very wide and the head lowered each time that
it was given. It was the only sound that either of
them made.
[margin]Great Horned
Owls[/margin]
  Most of the time they sat very erect and quite motionless
save for the slow up & down, bobbing motion of the head
common to most Owls. This was repeated every half minute
or less. Occasionally one or the other would crouch on his
perch and direct his gaze downward as if watching
for a Mouse in the marsh beneath. I repeatedly saw
them swoop down a steep incline and heard
them strike with a crash among the bushes or dry
brush or with a splash in shallow water but whether
or no they captured any prey I could not see.
Once, to my great surprise, one of them flew off
20 or 30 yards from the top of a stub and
then mounting nearly straight upwards about
the same number of feet, beating its wings steadily
& rapidly during the ascent, turned sharply
downward again & scaled back to its perch.
The whole evolution was so exactly like that
of a Flycatcher that neither Will nor I doubted
for a moment that the Owl actually tried