THE SCIENTIST. 
7 
For The K C. Scientist: 
Owls of Eastern Iowa, 
BY George H. Berry, Cedar Rapids 
Iowa. 
Perhaps one of the most common of the 
different species of Owls that occur her, 
is the Great Horned Owl. There seems 
to be a remarkable variation in the plum- 
age of this bird. One shot in the spring 
of '89, is of a dull cinerous brown, the 
usual white color on the throat being a 
pale tawnj^ bufJ', This spring, one shot 
from the same nest, was a pale gray, re- 
sembling the black and white plumage 
of young Snowy Owls. 1 have found 
young of a tawny color, and last spring 
found a pair almost perfectly white_ 
The eggs are round, of a chalky appear- 
ance, and in color, white, of those in my 
possession, eight in all, six are of a dirty 
yellowish white, which, on being slightly 
scraped, reveal a *greenish tinge. The 
other two are yellowish throughout, as 
are six eggs in the possession of a friend 
1 used an egg of the White-bellied Swal- 
low for white test, but when compared 
with those of the Green Heron, they ap- 
pear pure white. I have now in cap- 
tivity, two pairs of Great Horned Owls 
Pair A, captured in Montana, six years 
since, age unknown, are light grayish 
brown. They measure in extent; male 
48 inches, female 523^ inches. 
Pair B, taken from a nest near Palo, 
Iowa, three years since, are dark brown 
with a reddish tinge. They measured in 
extent ; male 39 inches, female 40 inches. 
The pair from Montana are the largest 
of this species I have ever seen in cap- 
tivity and hunters here-about all agree 
with me. They are at least the ugliest 
for 1 have a couple of bad gashes on my 
hand received while measuring them. 
I would ask the readers of The Scien- 
tist if age governs the color of the 
plumage of these birds? One afternoon 
last spring (March 24, '90.) three of us 
started with guns, climbers, egg boxes, 
and about sixty feet of rope, to search 
for owFs nests. About a mile from town 
we found a large bulky nest in a White 
Oak. By dint of hard pounding on 
the tree we finally frightened the mother 
bird from the nest, when she proved to 
be a Red-shouldered Hawk. The nest 
contained three oval, greenish-white 
eggs, spotted with lavender and pale 
brown. Nearly a mile from this nest 
we started a very large, light colored 
Great Horned Owl, from a nest in a 
Cotton-wood. It was an old tree, nearly 
four feet in diameter and fourty feet to 
the lowest limb. We tried climbing but 
the bark was to rotten. A friendly 
Maple offered apparently a safe rout but 
its topmost branch was still some five 
feet from the lowest limb of the Cotton- 
wood. The rope was used here to good 
advantage when we found the nest con- 
tained two young birds of a dirty white 
color. This ended our day's collecting. 
The thermometer showing 24'>above zero. 
I may mention that the young birds, be- 
ing in the nest over an hour from the 
time the mother bird left and my taking 
them, were so chilled that they died be- 
fore we reached home. 
Barred Owls reside here but are 
less frequently seen. They breed almost 
entirely in hollow trees, the eggs being 
identical in shape and color with those 
of the Great Horned Owl, but smaller in 
size. 
Next in frequency is the little Screech 
Owl. I can give no characteristic de- 
scription of this species as I have seen 
them in all the variations from rust-red 
to slaty-drab. They are rarely seen here 
from their habit of hiding in hollow trees 
during the day. One or two nests have 
been taken near here though I have not 
seen them. During the early spring an 
occasional Long-eared Owl is shot. 
Snowy Owls are quite common during 
the winter months, the first one this year 
