SNOWY owl 359 



For hours at a time the Owls remain quietly perched on the summits of these 

 hillocks, and at a distance look like patches of snow; they likewise make their 

 nests on such hilltops of various origin. It is thus very likely that the lack of 

 hillocks in certain parts of the Eurasian tundra, and not the lack of food, is what 

 causes the Snowy Owls to avoid certain regions as breeding places. 



Spring. — After a winter sojourn in southern Canada or the United 

 States, the snowy owls generally leave for the north early in spring, 

 but often a few may linger through spring, or even well into summer. 

 James H. Fleming (1902) says that, after the great invasion of 1901- 

 1902, "during March the females disappeared and were replaced in 

 April by the returning flight of light colored birds (males, as far as 

 I was able to examine). A few remained about Toronto Marsh all 

 through May, and a small light colored male was taken on June 7. 

 It was in excellent condition and showed no trace of being a wounded 

 bird." 



Snowy owls generally disappear from Massachusetts in April, but 

 Mr. Forbush (1927) has recorded one as late as May 20. Dr. 

 Glover M. Allen (1903) records one taken near Concord, N. H., on 

 July 15, 1897, and says: "The previous week had been extremely 

 hot, and the bird is conjectured to have lived in a large ice-house 

 near by, upon the cupola of which it was shot." Dr. Harrison F. 

 Lewis, in some notes he sent me on birds of the Labrador Peninsula, 

 says: "Howard H. Cleaves and I saw a snowy owl on Fright Island, 

 in the Mingan Islands, near Havre St. Pierre, on June 4, 1927. 

 Another individual of this species spent the summer in the vicinity 

 of Perroquet Island, in Bradore Bay, where the thousands of nesting 

 puffins and razor-billed auks offered an abimdant food supply. This 

 owl was seen frequently by Officer Esdras Carbonneau, who was 

 stationed at this point to protect the sea-bird colonies, and it was 

 seen also on June 28 and August 26 by Mr. Cleaves." 



Courtship. — Dr. George M. Sutton (1932) noted what he regarded 

 as a courtship performance on Southampton Island, of which he 

 writes: 



From May 15 to June 20 in the vicinity of the Post I heard Snowy Owls hoot- 

 ing, especially in the morning on the brightest days. The deep booming notes 

 floated across the rosy-white snow-plains from far and near, sometimes from 

 dozens of birds at the same time. The notes had a decidedly ventriloquial 

 quality, so that they seemed sometimes to come from high in the air, or from the 

 ground. The air fairly throbbed with dull, thick sounds. 



On May 25, a beautiful day, at about ten o'clock in the morning, I counted 

 at least twenty booming birds (probably all males) in the region about the Post. 

 So far-carrying were the cries that I could hear also the birds across the harbor, 

 seven miles away. I walked across the ridges back of the Post trying to locate 

 one of the hooting birds. Finally, I found one perched on the top of a boulder, 

 on a low ridge. To see him the better I crawled through the snow. When I 

 got down to hands and knees he began hooting. He lifted his head, swelled out 

 his throat enormously, elevated his tail comically until it stuck almost straight 



