The Horned Owls 
next resting place, screaming sarcastic apologies for their past rudeness, 
and promising redoubled misbehavior. 
One wonders that they dare do it, for the sullen object of mirth will 
assuredly wreak vengeance on them when his turn comes in the first watch 
of the night. It is difficult to exaggerate the rapacity of these freebooters. 
An observer in New York State, speaking, of course, of the eastern form, 
“states that in a nest he examined, containing two young Owls, he found 
the following animals: a mouse, a young muskrat, two eels, four bullheads, 
a Woodcock, four Ruffed Grouse, one rabbit, and eleven rats. The food 
taken out of the nest 
weighed almost eighteen 
pounds. A curious fact 
connected with these cap¬ 
tives was that the heads 
were eaten off, the bodies 
being untouched.’’ 1 
The brain of the victim 
is counted the tid-bit,and 
in seasons of plenty the 
bird will have nothing 
else. Thus, while the 
Owl probably will not 
kill wantonly, it is notor¬ 
iously wasteful, and the 
coarser portions of these 
choice viands of which 
we read, these bloody 
offerings to the infant 
Dinops, are removed pe¬ 
riodically from the nest. 
While a certain 
amount of “good” is un¬ 
deniably accomplished 
by the Horned Owl in 
preying upon rats and 
gophers, it is more than 
offset by the relentless 
attacks upon birds, espe¬ 
cially upon meadowlarks, 
quails, and grouse, and 
Taken in Los Angeles County Photo by W. M. Pierce 
EGGS OF PACIFIC HORNED OWL ON LEDGE OF CLIFF 
1 Bendire. Life Histories, N. A 
Birds. Vol. I., p. 382. 
1116 
