436 BIRDS OF ARCTIC AMERICA MACFARLANE. 



led him to institute a search which soou resulted in finding that the 

 eg'gs must have been removed by the parent birds to the face of a muddy 

 bank at least forty yards distant from the original nest. A few decayed 

 leaves had been placed under them, but nothing else in the way of lin 

 iug. A third egg had been added in the interim. There can hardly 

 be any doubt of the truth of the foregoing facts. 



358. Falco richardsonii Ridgway. Richardson's Merlin. 



This species is supposed to breed in the same region as F. columbarius, 

 and in all probability some of the eggs appearing thereunder may have 

 belonged to Richardson's Pigeon Hawk. 



364. Paiidion haliaetus carolineusis (Gmel.). American Osprey. 



If this species does not extend quite to Fort Anderson, I feel satis- 

 fied that I have seen more than one specimen, though not sufficiently 

 near to be shot, between that post and Fort Good Hope on Mackenzie 

 Eiver. 



367. Asio accipitrinus (Pallas). Short-eared Owl. 



Twelve nests of this species were found in various situations in 

 the "Barrens," as well as in wooded tracts, but all were on the 

 ground and mere depressions apparently scraped for the purpose, and 

 lined with dried grasses and withered leaves; a few feathers were 

 noticed in about half of them, and they seemed to have been plucked 

 from her breast by the parent bird. She occasionally sits very close 

 on her nest. The number of eggs in a nest varied between three and 

 five, and but one contained as many as seven. On 30th June, 18G5, an 

 Owl was observed flying about a particular spot in the Barren Grounds, 

 and we concluded that its mate was not far off, a suspicion con- 

 firmed by its uneasy excitement as soon as a search was instituted. 

 Myself and four of our party were thus fully engaged over an hour 

 ere success rewarded our efforts by the female getting oft" her nest in 

 the center of a small clump of dwarf willows, one foot in height, just 

 as she was almost trodden upon. It was composed of withered grasses 

 and feathers, and contained five eggs. We must have frequently ap- 

 proached her in the course of our protracted search. 



370. Scotiaptex cinerea (Gmel.). Great Gray Owl. 



I should not say that this owl was in " great abundance" in the An- 

 derson region, as inadvertently stated on page 33, vol. iii, of the Land 

 Birds. We certainly observed very few specimens, and we found but 

 one nest, that referred to in the same paragraph, on the 19th July, 1862, 

 near Lockhart Biver, on the route to Fort Good Hope. It was built on 

 a pine spruce tree at a height of about twenty feet, and was composed 

 of twigs and mosses thinly lined with feathers and down. It contained 



