ST11IGIDJ3. SYUNIUM CINEKEUM. 71 



S Y K IV I W j . 



SYRNIUM CINEREUM. 



Slr-ua cinerea, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 291. 



" RICH. & SWAINS. F. B. A. II, 1831, 77. 

 ATJD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 364 ; pi. cccli. 

 " " NUTTALL, Manual, I, 1832, 128. 

 Strix lappcmica, RETZIUS, Faun. Suec. 1800, p. 79. 

 Strix fuliginosa, SHAW, Gen. Zool. VII, 1809, 244. 

 Strix larlata, PALLAS, Zool. Ross. I, 1811,"318. 

 Syrnium cinereum, GOULD, Birds of Europe, I, 1832, pi. xlii. 

 " " BONAP. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 6. 



AUD. Syn. 1839, p. 1839. 



" Birds of Am. I, 1840, 130, pi. xxxv. 

 " DE KAY, Nat. Hist. N. Y. 1844, pi. xiii, fig. 29. 



" CASSIN, Syn. N. A. Birds (lllust. Birds of Cal.), 1854, p. 184. 



VULG. The Great Gray Owl. The Cinereous Owl. The Great Cinereous Owl. 



THE Cinereous Owl is confined to the more northern portions of Europe, Asia, 

 and America, and is very rarely met with even in the extreme northern portions of 

 the United States, and then only in midwinter. Its farthest southern limit on the 

 Atlantic, so far as known, is Massachusetts, where only two or three instances of 

 its occurrence are on record ; and on the Pacific, the Territory of Oregon, where it 

 was met with hy Dr. Townsend. In Europe it is even more exclusively Arctic than 

 on this continent. Lapland and Iceland are the only localities indicated by Tem- 

 minck, and even there it is spoken of as quite rare. Mr. Temminck also received 

 two specimens taken in Greenland. Its presence in Northern Asia is rather inferred 

 than really known. 



Our only positive knowledge of its nest is furnished by Richardson, who also 

 states that it is by no means a rare bird in the fur countries, and that it is an inhab- 

 itant of all the woody districts between Lake Superior and latitude 68, and between 

 Hudson's Bay and the Pacific. He discovered the nest in question on the 23d of 

 May, on the top of a lofty balsam-poplar. It was composed of sticks and lined with 

 feathers, and contained young. 



Having no specimen of the egg, I am unable to illustrate it. I have, however, in 

 my possession a drawing of an egg of this Owl, sketched by Mr. Audubou from a 

 specimen from the fur regions, and afterwards again copied by Dr. James Trudeau. 

 I have no reason to doubt its authenticity. This specimen was of a clear, but not a 

 bright, white color, was nearly spherical, and measured 2 T r ^ inches in length by 

 exactly 2 in its greatest breadth. 



