146 
THE GREAT HORNED OWL. 
induce them to supply them with food. They acquire the full plumage of 
the old birds in the first spring, and until then are considerably lighter, with 
more dull buff in their tints. 1 have found nests belonging to this species in 
large hollows of decayed trees, and twice in the fissures of rocks. In all 
these cases, little preparation had been made previous to the laying of the 
eggs, as I found only a few grasses and feathers placed under them. 
The Great Horned Owl lives retired, and it is seldom that more than one 
is found in the neighbourhood of a farm, after the breeding season ; but as 
almost every detached farm is visited by one of these dangerous and powerful 
marauders, it may be said to be abundant. The havoc which it commits is 
very great. I have known a plantation almost stripped of the whole of the 
poultry raised upon it during spring, by one of these daring foes of the 
feathered race, in the course of the ensuing winter. 
This species is very powerful, and equally spirited. It attacks Wild 
Turkeys when half grown, and often masters them. Mallards, Guinea-fowls, 
and common barn fowls, prove an easy prey, and on seizing them it carries 
them off in its talons from the farm-yards to the interior of the woods. 
When wounded, it exhibits a revengeful tenacity of spirit, scarcely surpassed 
by any of the noblest of the Eagle tribe, disdaining to scramble away like 
the Barred Owl, but facing its enemy with undaunted courage, protruding 
its powerful. talons, and snapping its bill, as long as he continues in its 
presence. On these occasions, its large goggle eyes are seen to open and 
close in quick succession, and the feathers of its body, being raised, swell 
out its apparent bulk to nearly double the natural size. 
Great Horned-Owl, Strix Virginiana , Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vi. p. 52. 
Strix Virginiana, Bonap. Syn., p. 37. 
Great Horned-Owl or Cat Owl, Strix Virginiana , Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 124. 
Great Horned Owl, Strix Virginiana , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. i. p.313 ; vol. v. p.393. 
Upper part of the head brownish-black, mottled with light brown, the 
tufts of the same colour, margined with brown ; face brownish-red, with 
a circle of blackish-brown ; upper parts undulatingly banded and minutely 
mottled with brownish-black and yellowish-red, behind tinged with grey ; 
wings and tail light brownish-yellow, barred and mottled with blackish- 
brown and light brownish-red ; chin white ; upper part of throat light-red- 
dish, spotted with black, a band of white across the middle of fore neck ; 
its lower part and the breast light yellowish-red, barred with deep brown, as 
are the lower parts generally ; several longitudinal brownish-black patches 
on the lower fore neck ; tarsal feathers light yellowish-red, obscurely barred. 
Male, 23, 56. Female, 25, 60. 
