200 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVI 
rather in an effort to see plainly, or decoy, than to harm or frighten us. And 
now continually came the low, musical, indrawn, whistled “Whee e e The 
call would have come more suitably from the bill of some wee plaintive fly- 
catcher than from this great bird of prey. She also gave vent at this time 
to an utterly indescribable, turkey-like chuckle. Finally she hooted, but so 
low that it sounded like a dove, “Coo', coo', coo, coo.” But the mate heard and 
his booming answer sounded from one hundred yards up the canyon. I was 
listening particularly for the canine quality in the tone and it undoubtedly 
has much of the full-throated explosive effect of a baying hound. It probably 
will not hold as an invariable rule, but it is at least interesting that every time 
either adult hooted, they used the indicated arrangement of two long and two 
short notes, “Whoo, whoo, who, who.” We looked up this last deep-voiced 
bird where he sat close against the trunk of a pine and he proved to be as fool- 
ish as the supposed female. He 
did not even move when a pebble 
struck his foot. 
The young were docile, downy 
little things of a soft grayish and 
huffy white. They used neither 
bill nor claw, and the direst 
threat of the larger bird was a 
slight parting of the hill as it 
shrank back from the touch of 
our hands. This larger bird we 
took to camp for the night as 
mascot of a happy party and as 
hostage from the parent owl. 
The other young was left in a 
tree. 
We arrived next morning to 
find the old bird busily tearing at 
a fresh-killed brush rat. Under 
the tree were the plucked tail 
feathers and primaries of two 
jays, probably the work of the 
owls. Only one regurgitated pel- 
let was found. That one con- 
tained the partial skull and leg 
bones of a mouse. By this time the 
light had grown stronger, and the 
old bird had ceased to show any interest whatever in the young which we were 
busily photographing. Instead she went calmly off to sleep. 
We had decided to examine the nest in spite of its desertion, so in the cool 
of the afternoon we fastened a block to the end of our dangling rope, rove the 
new rope through it and went up from the bottom with the greatest ease. 
The nest cave was quite good-sized when examined closely, extending up and 
back for three or four feet. The nest itself, placed near the entrance, was 
tAvo and a half feet across, and in situation and construction might well have 
been a raven’s nest. Possibly it was so originally. In any event it had evi- 
dently been used for years. The comparatively large sticks of its foundation 
had rotted down and the interstices gradually filled Avith bones and hair until 
Fig. 60 . Spotted Owl; she gaa^ a low in- 
DRAAVN AAmiSTLE WITH A RISING INFLECTION. 
