BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
157 
Ornithologist and Oologist, June, 1886, says: “ In thirteen nests of this 
bird that have come under personal notice, twelve contained two eggs, 
or young, and only one contained three eggs. All the nests referred to 
above were placed in branches of trees and were generally those of 
hawks or crows, renovated or enlarged. Occasionally a hollow tree is 
used for this purpose. Upon one occasion I replaced the owl’s eggs 
taken from a nest with those of the common hen, and upon visiting them 
at the expiration of three weeks, found that both the latter had been 
hatched and had fallen from the nest, about twenty feet from the ground, 
and that the owls had deserted the locality. The Great Horned Owls 
are liberal providers for their young. I have frequently found full 
grown rabbits lying in the nest beside the young, and scarcely a nest 
visited did not have a strong odor of skunk, while bones and feathers 
were scattered around attesting to the predacious habits of the proprie¬ 
tors.” “ The flight of the Great Homed Owl is elevated, rapid and 
graceful. It sails with apparent ease and in large circles, in the manner 
of an eagle, rises and descends without the least difficulty by merely 
inclining its wings or its tail as it passes through the air. Now and 
then it glides silently close over the earth with incomparable velocity, 
and drops, as if shot dead, on the prey beneath. At other times, it sud¬ 
denly alights on the top of a fence stake or a dead stump, shakes its 
feathers, arranges them, and utters a shriek so horrid that the woods 
around echo to its dismal sound. Now, it seems as if you heard the 
barking of a cur dog; again the notes are so rough and mingled together 
that they might be mistaken for the last gurglings of a murdered person 
striving in vain to call for assistance; at another time, when not more 
than fifty yards distant, it utters its more usual hoo, hoo, lioo-e, in so 
peculiar an undertone that a person unacquainted with the notes of this 
species might easily conceive them to be produced by an owl more than 
a mile distant. During the utterance of all these unmusical cries it 
moves its body, and more particularly its head, in various ways, putting 
them into positions, all of which appear to please it much, however gro¬ 
tesque they may seem to the eye of man. In the interval following each 
cry it snaps its bill.”— Audubon. 
These owls, like the preceding species, are not migratory and when 
not engaged in breeding lead a solitary existence. Although chiefly 
nocturnal in habits, Great Horned Owls are often seen in cloudy weather 
and in the early twilight searching for food. On one occasion, when the 
sun was shining brightly (about 10 a. m.), I saw one of these owls make 
two attempts to catch a hen and her young chicks. 
Audubon says: Its food consists chiefly of the larger species of galli¬ 
naceous birds, half-grown wild turkeys, pheasants and domestic poultry 
of all kinds, together with several species of ducks. Hares, young opos¬ 
sums and squirrels are equally agreeable to it, and whenever chance 
throws a dead fish on the shore the Great Homed Owl feeds with pecu¬ 
liar avidity on it.” 
