Plate LIX. 
Fig. 4. BUBO VIRGINIAN US-Great Horned Owl. 
The Great Horned Owl is a common resident species throughout the State, and in some sections is 
nearly as numerous and as well known as the Screech Owl. It usually nests in February, and rears but 
one brood during the year. 
LOCALITY: 
The nest is generally situated in a tall tree in dark and retired woods. The timber in river-bottoms 
and uplands is each frequented, but the species prefers especially the large and gnarly sycamores which 
grow along the banks of rivers and creeks. Exceptionally the nest is built in an isolated tree, or in 
one of a small clump of trees a half a mile or more distant from the nearest timberdand. 
I have several times found it iu low trees in cultivated fields. 
POSITION : 
The largest and tallest trees are commonly selected for the nest, the chosen site being a cavern- 
ous limb or trunk, or a perpendicular or horizontal fork formed by three or four branches, from thirty 
to sixty feet above the ground. I recently found a nest in the crotch of a honey-locust tree which was 
exceptionally low, its height being but sixteen feet. 
MATERIALS : 
When the nest is in a hollow tree the materials of which it is composed consist chiefly of weed- 
stems, corn-husks, corn-silk, leaves, feathers from, the mother-bird, and other pliable material in greater 
or less quantity, according to the size of the cavity and the individual fancy of the builders. I have 
heard of an instance where the eggs were laid upon the soft decayed wood which had accumulated in the 
interior of an old tree-trunk. The composition of the nest when built among the branches differs from 
the above description only in the addition of a foundation of coarse sticks. These are necessitated by 
the position and are worked into a rough platform like that in the nest of the Crow or some of the 
larger Hawks. A nest taken in February 1882, is composed and measures as follows : Position, crotch 
of Elm tree. Height, forty feet. Foundation, coarse twigs varying from a few inches to a foot and a half 
in length, and from one-sixteenth to three-eighths of an inch in diameter. Superstructure, grasses, rootlets, 
sod, weed stems, oak-leaves, corn-husks, and similar flexible materials intertwined and felted. Lining, 
grasses and feathers from the breast of the builders. The structure resembles the nest of the Crow in 
size as well as in materials and mode of construction. The cavity is shallow measuring but two inches 
in depth. Its diameter is about eight inches. 
EGGS : 
Two or three eggs compose the conrplement. Two are found oftener than any other number. The 
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