. Our northern and eastern birds : containing descriptions of the birds of the northern and eastern states and British provinces; together with a history of their habits, times of arrival and departure, their distribution, food, song, time of breeding, and a careful and accurate description of their nests and eggs . ws discover the presence of one ofthese birds, they immediately collect from all quarters, andattack him on every side, uttering their harsh, discordantcries : the owl is kept dancing and dodging on the limb, hisperch, in a ludicrous manner; if he takes to flight, he ispursued by h
. Our northern and eastern birds : containing descriptions of the birds of the northern and eastern states and British provinces; together with a history of their habits, times of arrival and departure, their distribution, food, song, time of breeding, and a careful and accurate description of their nests and eggs . ws discover the presence of one ofthese birds, they immediately collect from all quarters, andattack him on every side, uttering their harsh, discordantcries : the owl is kept dancing and dodging on the limb, hisperch, in a ludicrous manner; if he takes to flight, he ispursued by his enemies, and soon forced to alight. I haveoften been enabled to procure a specimen, by followinga noisy mob of this description ; just as we often are ableto secure one of the smaller owls by proceeding to the copsewhere numbers of small birds — cat-birds, chewinks, andthrushes — are scolding at their enemy. I have had several specimens of the Great Horned 0^ 1in captivity: they make amusing pets. When fed with rawmeat, they seldom take it freely from the hand or tongo;and often can be made to swallow it, only by our openingtheir bills, and putting in the meat. They seem to havethe power of seeing by daylight; for, if a living animal ishitroduced into their cage, they instantly seize it. I have ^^^^ %. ^^^^ Grkat Owl. Buho Vrrginiaynis. Bonaparte. THE GREAT HORNED OWL. 68 often put ill a dead mouse, with a string attached to which I dragged it across the cage: an owl instantlyseized it, as if it were alive, and ate it. A living hat ( Ves-pertilio Carolmensis), on being introduced, was instantlyseized, bnt, after being killed, was rejected. The strongmusky scent peculiar to these animals may have been thereason for the owls not eating it: if not, I cannot accountfor it. In eating its prey, the Owl stands on it with both feet, andtears it with its bill: if the piece torn off is large, the headis thrown back, and the repeated contraction of the musclesof the t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidournortherne, bookyear1883
