Nesting of Bubo virginianus. 
BY C. R. KEYES, DES MOINES, IOWA. 
The Great-horned Owl is a rather common 
resident in the heavily timbered portions of 
this region, and is, perhaps, with the exception 
of Megascops , more familiar generally than 
any other member of the Bubonidae found 
here. The nest, as is usual with this species, 
is a cavity in some forest tree, though some- 
times a deserted hawk’s nest is occupied. Nidi- 
fication commences earlier in the season with 
this than any other species breeding locally, 
and even though the weather at this time is 
severely cold as is generally the case, the full 
complement of eggs is laid before the 16th or 
17th of February, and it is not of uncommon 
occurrence to find a broad band of ice encirc- 
ling the impression in which the eggs are de- 
posited. The eggs are usually two, sometimes 
three in number, but personally they have not 
been found to exceed the latter. A typical nest 
examined on the 17th of February, 1883, was in 
a gigantic old sycamore tree, situated at the en- 
trance to a deep ravine at Devil’s Gap, near 
Des Moines. The cavity, about fifty feet from 
the ground, at the base of two immense 
branches, was three feet in diameter and about 
the same height. There were three entrances : 
the one used by the owls, on a level with the 
bottom of the cavity, and which had been 
formed by a large branch breaking off close to 
its point of origin; a smaller opening on the 
opposite side; and the third at the top, a long 
irregular slit four or five inches in width. A 
few inches from the first of these entrances 
were the two eggs in a shallow depression in 
the decayed wood that formed the floor of the 
, cavity. Scattered around the nest were a dozen 
or more tail feathers of the owls, the skull, and 
bits of fur of a rabbit, the big bones of a large 
raptorial bird, besides many bones of smaller 
birds, and the body of a common pigeon re- 
cently killed. 
The following season, from the same nest a 
set of three eggs was taken, and in April, an 
egg and a young owl about a week ' old were 
found; the inference being that where dis- 
turbed, this species deposits a second set. Cer- 
tain it is, however, that even when disturbed, 
this bird will continue to occupy the same nest 
year after year, and though this is personally 
the only case in which a nest, after being once 
examined, has received a second visit the same 
season, it is quite probable that when the first 
set is taken, a second one is deposited. 
About the first of May the young are fledged, 
and six weeks later the “ horns ” are notice- 
able. A pair taken from the nest was kept 
confined for nearly three years in a barn, when 
a protracted absence from home necessitated 
the disposal of them. They were fed on fresh 
meat from the butchers’ shops, and occasional- 
ly rats and mice, the latter they usually cap- 
tured for themselves. 
New Eng.Rapbores. Number Eggs in 
a set. F. H. Carpenter. 
Great-horned Owl, ( Bubo virgiamis ). 
34 sets of 2 J 
o,&o. xn. Oct. 1887 p.iaa 
A Philadelphia Collection of Eggs of 
Ray tores. 
Bubo virginianus. Great Horned Owl. Five i 
sets of three, four sets of two. Total : nine 
sets, twenty-three eggs. 
O.&O, XIV. Mar. 1889 p.45 
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