126 THE CONDOR Vol. XIX ber them in local poultry yards nearly twenty to one. The mammals eaten were confined almost entirely to rabbits and small sktmks, or civets (Spilogale), it was somewhat difficult to tell which as both have the same odor. It is remark- able what one of these owls can swallow, as in one stomach I found the entire hind leg of a full grown civet, which was torn off where it joined the body. Mr. D. E. Brown, of Seattle, reports finding the entire leg of a full grown hen in one owl. Great as was the flight of these owls in the vicinity of Tacoma, the main abundance seems to have centered in Vancouver Island, as is shown by a letter to me from Mr. Walter F. Burton, of Victoria, B.C. This I quote in part as follows: "We have a plague of Horned Owls here, which has cleaned out all our pheasants. Hundreds have been shot, but the damage is done. I was out after them yesterday and in a short ?valk counted fourteen pairs of pheasant wings. I have killed a great many of the owls. Their chief food here is phea- sants, grouse, Short-cared Owls and Meadowlarks. Now that they have fin- ished the gamebirds they are eating salt-water ducks; the last one I shot had a Fig. 46. POISONED DUSKY HORNED OWL CLUTCHING HUTCHINS GOOSE THAT IT HAD KILLED; TACOMA, WASHINGTON. Golden-eye. Out of all the owls shot here I have not heard of a rat or mouse being found in the stomachs, and many have been searched." This letter was wfit;en under date of January 1, 1917, and from as excellent and conservative an observer as Mr. Burton, must be accepted as of great value. The largest bird that I have knoxvn the Horned Owls to kill is the Hutch- ins Goose shown in the illustration (fig. 46), which also came from the game farm of Dr. Shaver. The killing must have taken place in the water, as the body of the goose was in the lake with the head and neck on a floating log. The body xvas poisoned and the oxvl found beside it next morning, the claws of one foot securely grasping the tail of the goose as may be seen in the picture. It is of interest to see that the method of killing so large a bird was by ripping up Ihe neck, as the head and body were uninjured. This is precisely the same method used by the Kennicott Screech Owl in killing a full grown l?ing-necked Pheasant. In both species of owl the victim is several times as heavy as the murderer.
