BIRDS OF KANSAS. 



309 



son and almost totally niiknown the next. • I was informed bv 



Captain Smith — a well known whaling captain of that region 



that he had seen as manv as fifty of these birds perched in view 

 at one time along the abrupt coast line of the Arctic, in the 

 vicinity of Cape Lisbnrne, and yet they were so shy that it was 

 impossible to secure a single bird. It breeds upon the ground, 

 as far south as the mouth of the Kuskoquira, especially during 

 the years when lemmings are abundant, when this Owl also 

 becomes proportionately numerous. The natives told me of 

 seasons, separated by long intervals, when the lemmings have 

 occurred in the greatest abundance, and the White Owl accom- 

 panying them in such numbers that they were seen dotting the 

 country here and there as they perched upon the scattered 

 knolls. During such seasons the Owls nest on the hillsides, 

 laying, according to the natives, from five to ten eggs, in a 

 grassy depression in a sheltered spot on the hillside. The last 

 time when they were so abundant about a dozen pairs were 

 found nesting upon an isolated hill near the coast, just east of 

 St. Michael's, as I was informed by several different persons. 



"On one occasion, while traveling south of the Yukon, in 

 December, I secured a beautiful specimen of this bird, which 

 was nearly immaculate milky white, with a rich and extremely 

 beautiful shade of clear lemon yellow suffusing the entire bird, 

 exactly as the rosy blush clothes the entire plumage of some 

 gulls in the spring. The bird was kept until the next morning; 

 an examination then showed that beautiful tinge had vanished 

 and the feathers had become dead wdiite, with a bare trace of 

 the coloring seen the previous evening. The birds showing 

 the largest amount of white are usually males. 



"The highest latitudes reached by Arctic explorers have not 

 exceeded the bounds of this hardy bird, which is represented bv 

 a similar or identical form around the northern shores of the 

 old world. In the 'History of North American Birds,' the 

 American bird is separated from the European by the greater 

 amount of white possessed by the latter. It is rather common to 

 find pure white specimens of this bird, from the northern part 

 of America, marked by a very few scattered spots upon the back. 



