OOLOGY.
LaHoyt, Henry Co., Ia., Mch. 10, ’88.
Messrs. Webster & Mead.
Dear Sirs:—March number of the H. O. and O. at hand, and must say it is a daisy. I am an oologist, and on January last I found a nest of the great horned owl, with two fresh eggs, which is the earliest I ever knew it to breed here. The nest was in an old snag, about ten feet from the ground. The owl could be plainly seen and I could almost see the eggs while standing on the ground. I had frequently noticed her on the snag, but thought she was roosting there through the day. At the time I found the nest, the snow was on an average of two feet deep. This is the second nest of this species that I have ever found.
Red-tailed hawks are plenty here. I found eight nests in one season; they nest here in February and June, raising two broods. They always use the same nests each year unless they are disturbed. I once found a nest in which they had only laid one egg, so I went away, leaving it until they had finished the set. I visited the nest four days afterward, but that egg was gone and they never used that nest again. I have never found a nest yet of the red-tailed hawk but what it was in a tall tree, and always leaning over a ravine. They trouble the farmers’ fowls a great deal, often killing the largest hens. I once set a steel trap by a hen which they had killed and next morning I had the male. Yours truly, James C. Jay.
