NORTHWESTERN" HORNED OWL 347 



Behavior. — The following incident, related by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas 

 T. McCabe (1928), illustrates the strength and vitality of this great 

 bird: 



On or about June 1, 1927, one of us knocked a Great Horned Owl {Bubo virgini- 

 anus) out of the lower branches of an aspen with a charge of small shot. The 

 slow, wheeling fall, with open wings, was characteristic of a dead bird, so the 

 gunner took his time and was rewarded by an hour's search, several large second- 

 aries, and no owl. In another case, on November 4, 1927, the junior author was 

 more fortunate and brought in perhaps the most superb owl we have seen in this 

 land of owls, splendid not only in size and general condition, but covered with a 

 blanket of pure white fat of a depth which would have been surprising on the 

 fattest of waterfowl. By chance we skeletonized this specimen, and found that, 

 at some earlier date, the ulna had been completely shattered for a length of about 

 an inch and a half, and had knit, at a somewhat false angle, in a large, perforated 

 bony mass. The principal metacarpal bone had also been smashed, and had knit 

 in a similar way. The probability that this was the missing owner of the second- 

 aries was very strong. Such a condition presupposes other "ills we know not of", 

 for the side and back must have been badly peppered. The owl had been able to 

 maintain life without flight for a considerable length of time, in spite of the 

 abundant coyotes, and either kill some prey under the same conditions or endure 

 an amazing fast and still regain its superb condition within one Bhort northern 

 summer. 



Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1904) described a race from the coast of Cali- 

 fornia which he named icelus, but which has never been recognized in 

 the A. O. U. Check-List; he described it as resembling pacificus, "but 

 very much darker particularly on the upper parts." The type was 

 taken at San Luis Obispo, Calif., on November 29, 1891, and was 

 evidently a winter migrant, as this locality is well within the breeding 

 range of pacificus. Dr. Louis B. Bishop tells me that icelus is a per- 

 fectly good race, much like lagophonus, but smaller, breeding from 

 Tillamook County, Oreg., southward along the coast region to Mon- 

 terey County, Calif., and ranging north to Thurston County, Wash., 

 and south, in winter, to Los Angeles County, Calif. He has 21 

 specimens in his collection, from the above and intermediate localities, 

 which are uniformly referable to this race. 



Dr. Bishop (1931a) has recently described a new race from Victoria, 

 British Columbia, which he names Bubo virginianus leucomelas; he 

 says that it is "similar to B. v. lagophonus, but with the ochraceous 

 replaced with grayish white throughout the plumage, except for a 

 little pale ochraceous in the interscapular region. Though collected 

 in the breeding range of B. v. saturatus its relationship is nearer 

 lagophonus, as it replaces the sooty black of the former with the more 

 grayish black of the latter— almost Ridgway's 'blackish brown (2)'. 

 The abdomen is more distinctly barred than in either of these races 

 and the pale markings are more profuse above. The tarsi and toes 

 are heavily spotted and barred with black on a grayish white ground." 

 The type was taken near Victoria on January 19, 1927, where it was 



