STKIGID^E. NYCTALE RIC II A 11 D S O N 1 . 73 



almost globular, and, except in shape, hardly distinguishable from the egg of the 

 domestic Hen. It is two inches in length, 1-i-J in breadth. 



NYCTALE EICHARDSONI. 



Strix tengmalmi, RICH. & SWAINS. F. B. A. II, 1831, 94, pi. xxxii. 



" " AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1835, 559, pi. ccclxxx. 



Nyctale richardsoni, BONAP. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 7. 



" " CASSIN, Syn. N. A. Birds (Illust. Birds of Cal.), 1854, p. 185. 



Vlula tengmalmi, AUD. Syn. 1839, p. 24. 



" " " Birds of Am. I, 1840, 122, pi. xxxii. 



VULG. Ricliardsoii's Owl. " Tcngmaliii's Oivl" (Richardson and Swainson, Audubon, &c., 

 incorrectly). 



THIS Owl is an exclusively Northern bird, peculiar to North America, and rarely 

 met with in the limits of the United States. A single specimen has been obtained 

 in Massachusetts. Dr. Hoy mentions it as a bird of Wisconsin, and on the Pacific 

 Dr. Townsend met with it as far south as Oregon, where it is more abundant than on 

 the eastern coast. According to Richardson, it inhabits all the wooded country from 

 Great Slave Lake to the United States, and is very common on the banks of the 

 Saskatchewan. It was obtained in Canada by the Countess of Dalhousie, but at 

 what season the bird was met with is not stated ; the Smithsonian Institution also 

 possess specimens from the vicinity of Montreal. It probably does not breed so far 

 south as that place, or, if so, very rarely. Mr. Audubon procured a specimen 

 near Bangor in Maine, in September, the only one he ever met with. 



This Owl, according to Mr. Hutchins, builds a nest of grass, half-way up a pine- 

 tree, and lays two eggs in the month of May. 



I have in my possession the copy, made by Dr. James Trudeau, of a drawing- 

 taken by Mr. Audubon from a specimen in an English cabinet. It is nearly spheri- 

 cal, the color white with a slight tinge of yellowish, and measures 1 T \ inches in 

 length by one inch in breadth. 



As I have no means of access to any authenticated egg of this Owl, I am unable 

 to illustrate it, though it probably would not be distinguishable from that of Teng- 

 malm's Owl, to which it is so closely allied. 



10 



