6 THE CONDOR Vol. XIII ognomies and the feeling that we had doue the best we could, under the circumstauces, to preserve the record of au unusual set of conditions. The Great Horned Owls had proved to be, withont much doubt, the fiercest of all the birds of prey. In one further resp?t, unfortunately, our experieuces were in cou?ast to those of Mr. Fiuley and Mr. Bohlmau. We fouud it impo.?ible, by any means at our command to secure satisfactory negatives of the adnlt birds.* We were unable to take them at distances of less than thirty feet and in eyeD; case fl?ey so bleuded with their backgrouud of gray bark, or gra3: bark aud patches of snow, as not to ? worth while. XVe regretted our inability to try the effect of a blind to o?rate from, but the mechanical difficulties iu the way of stroh au attempt demanded more time for their solutiou tlmn we had to give. We therefore gave our atteutiou to the uest and conteuts, or rather as much atteutiou as tke old birds would allow us to ?ve. As the adults were n?essarily much under observatiou it is hoped that a r?ord of their couduct may add some interest to the present article. The beautiful deciduous forest, stretching for miles along the uorth bluffs of the Cedar River to tim west of Mt. Vernon, had 1)5 1890 been reduced to various d, tached groves of from ten to a hundred or more acres each iu extent. About Fcl)ruary of this latter year I was hunting through oue of the larger of thee Fig. 2. THE O?VI.S' NESTING TIME: PRo%I tOWN TIlE TIMBER TRACT AND ENVIRON- 51ENT ARE SEEN IN P?NOR?%IIC VIeW groves which, if one struck straight across the fields, was only a mile and a h?f from town. I remember watching the short, 1111ci sy flights of a Great Horned Owl, but without locating his mate. I ? remember talking with Mr. McFarland, a sturdy ?otchman who has occupied his homestead just across the road from the owls' h.uuting ?ounds siuce the early fifties, and learuing that "big hoot-owls have ?ways been iu that timber." Soou after, the ?eat oaks and hard maples of the easteru two-thirds of the ?ove fell uuder the ax, leaving to the west only a twenty-five acre remnant and, iu the ?ut-over area, ouh, some old white elms aud a few youug maples and lindeus. Among these latter the forest soil soon gave w?v to a thick carpet of blue grass aud so what had been heavy forest was ?adually trans- formed into a rather opeu and still very beautiful timber pasture. It was takeu for granted that the owls had moved elsewhere aud for a .?ries of years what had b?n famous "Sugar Grove" was practically forgotten. From 1901 ou, however, my way several times led across the pasture aud into the timber tract aud I was surprised to uote there each time the presence of Great Horned Owls. Ouce or twice I even
- The portrait of the adult owl shown herewith (p. 7) was taken several years ago from a fine specimen
brought in to the Cor?ell College h:ological laboratory. The pictnre was made by a student of zoology, who left the negative as property of the college.
