52 



GREAT HORNED-OWL. 

 STRIX VIRGINIANA. 

 [Plate L.— Fig. 1.] 



AtcX. Zool. p. 228, JVo. 114.— Edw, 60.— -Lath. I, 119 Turt. SysU p. 166.— Peale's Museum, 



' JVo. 410. 



THE figure of this bird, as well as of those represented in 

 the same plate, is reduced to one half its natural dimensions. By 

 the same scale the greater part of the Hawks and Owls of the pre- 

 sent volume are drawn; their real magnitude rendering this un- 

 avoidable. 



This noted and formidable Owl is found in almost every quar- 

 ter of the United States. His favorite residence, however, is in the 

 dark solitudes of deep swamps covered with a growth of gigantic 

 timber; and here, as soon as evening draws on, and mankind re- 

 tire to rest, he sends forth such sounds as seem scarcely to belong 

 to this world, startling the solitary pilgrim as he slumbers by his 

 forest iire, 



" Making night hideous.^' 



Along the mountainous sliores 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 morn- 

 ing, and amused me with his singular exclamations. Sometimes, 

 sweeping down and around my fire, uttering a loud and sudden 

 Waugh 0! Waugh 0! 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 suffo- 

 cating, or throttled, and cannot fail of being exceedingly entertain- 



