Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/158

146 makes a really intelligent pet. The American species is not common in the Middle States. We saw one this spring, a gay, attractive bird, in an hotel at Tom's River, New Jersey. It fairly glowed in a warm, bright tawny hue. In reply to an inquiry, we promptly pronounced it a young barn-owl; but its owner was piqued at the idea that anybody should have seen its like before.

2. The sub-family Buboninœ, the eared or horned owls, are so called because of a pair of feathery, ear-like tufts, which are so set upon the head as to have earned for these birds the general name, cat-owls. Their facial disk is not quite perfect. The most famed bird of this group is the great horned-owl (Bubo Virginianus, Bonap.) (see Fig. 3). This bird has usually a white collar round the neck. It is truly



a magnificent bird, of indomitable spirit and large size, being about two feet in length. It does not migrate, and is found pretty much all over North America. It breeds in winter and early spring, nesting in hollow trees and crevices of rocks, and is said to build also on some large branch, or in the crotch of a tree. Dr. Coues gives an interesting account of two unfledged ones, which he captured in Dakota, in the month of June. They were his pets for the whole summer, and traveled with him several hundred miles. For a while they had two different notes, the one of hunger or loneliness, a querulous, explosive syllable, and the other a harsh cry of anger, or remonstrance, when rudely handled. They did not begin to hoot until they were about four months old, and then only while at liberty during the night; for, says he, they became so thoroughly tame that, as their wings grew, enabling them to take short flights, I used to release them in the evening from the tether by which they were confined. They enjoyed the liberty, and eventually would stay away all night.