The Number of Eggs Laid by The 
Great Horned Owl. 
BY CHARLES F. MORRISON, FORT LEWIS, COL. 
It has been with some amusement that I have 
read, from time to time, the statements of some 
writers in the Ornithologist and Oologist 
as to the number of eggs in a clutch of the 
Great Horned Owl, ( Bubo virginianus ). On 
page 11 of Yol. 11, I find this statement: “Thus 
the Great Horned Owl is said * * * * to 
lay from three to six eggs, while the real num- 
her is only two or three.'' 1 To me, this idea of 
any one. saying that the “Hooter” shall not lay 
more than three eggs is simply ridiculous, and 
would be to any collector that had spent years 
in the field in all parts of the United States and j 
British America. Such statements should only 
come from closet oologists whose field work 
has been limited to certain localities. 
That this bird lays but two or three eggs as a 
rule, I will admit; and in the states east of the 
Mississippi River and along the Pacific coast, } 
evidently does lay but that number; but, in the 
northern range of the Rocky Mountains and its 
numerous spurs, it deposits from two to six eggs. 
I make this statement from six year’s experi- 
ence in that section. The first nest of this spe- 
cies I ever found was in 1880, on the North 
Platte River, one mile north of Fort Laramie, 
Wyoming Ter.; contained six eggs, and on 
the same day, and one mile up the river, I 
found another nest containing four eggs. A I 
few days later I found, down the river, two 
nests from which I took nine eggs; one set of 
five, and one of four. 
During my collecting trip through Wyoming, 
Southern Montana, Western Nebraska, portions 
of Utah and Idaho, I found but one nest of two . 
eggs, which was less than a mile from Fort 
As for others of our Raptores I am not at 
present able to speak, but I think that time will 
show that more eggs are laid to a clutch in 
some species. I shall devote the coming sea- 
son to Raptores especially, and will make the 
result known. In the meantime I invite cor- 
respondence as regards B. virginiarus , and 
would be especially pleased to hear from col- 
lectors from the North River region upon this 
subject. No one man can learn all, it is only 
by many working and comparing results that 
the truth is brought to light. 
Q.&O. XII.Apr.1 887 p . S' f. 
Peculiar Nest of the Great Horned 'Swf.^t&'hife' "returning from a 
short walk in the woods during a recent afternoon (March 14), I found 
a nest of Bubo virginianus which was quite remarkable. I had left the 
woodland and was crossing a meadow; in this there stood perhaps a half 
dozen elms and maples, none of them over six or eight inches in diameter 
at the base, the nearest timberland being three hundred yards away, 
across a creek. In one of the largest maples there was an old nest of the 
Crow, only twenty-four feet from the ground ; this was occupied by a pair 
of Owls and one of the parent birds was upon the nest. Repeated heavy 
blows upon the trunk did not effect her flight ; she remained until I shook 
a sapling which brushed the nest with its tips. Ascending, I found three 
! i n and about the nest were sixteen field mice, a hind leg of a rabbit 
and a wing of a Downy Woodpecker. There was also in a tree at no great 
distance the half-eaten body of a Pinnated Grouse. Upon preparation 
of the eggs I found them addled ; incubation, which was equal in all, had 
advanced for three or five days, when the process had stopped, probably 
through the eggs becoming chilled. Evidently the bird had continued 
to set upon the eggs for a week thereafter. — Frank H. Shoemaker, 
Hampton , Ioiva. 
McKinney, Wyoming, on Clear Creek, and near 
the foot hills of the Horn Mountains. This 
nest was empty but I secured two young birds 
from the lower limbs of a small tree not twenty 
yards from the nest. This was on May 28th, 
1884, rather a late date for this bird. 
During the winter of 1885-86 I happened to 
be travelling over a larger part of the United 
States, and on March 1886, I found myself at 
Hannable, Mo., where I took two sets of two 
eggs each. These are the only sets of two eggs 
now in my collection which I secured myself. 
I was never so fortunate as to find this bird in 
New England and my Hannable sets are my 
most Eastern finds. I was therefore much sur- 
prised at the several statements in the Orni- 
thologist and Oologist, and being asked by 
a personal friend of mine who knew my expe- 
rience differed, to give my side of the story, I 
turned over my old note books with the above 
results. 
Now, why can’t we look deeper into these 
things, and see if the “Hooter” does not come 
under influences in different localities which 
change its breeding habits as well as its plum- 
age. If the plumage and song of birds are 
changed, why might not this affect their egg 
laying to some extent? Ornithology is yet in 
its infancy, notwithstanding the long strides 
made in the past ten years. 
