LABRADOR HORNED OWL 343 



Ontario, which were formerly reported as saturatus, are now recog- 

 nized as migrants from the range of heterocnemis. 



Lucien M. Turner says in his unpublished notes: "So far as my 

 own experience was concerned, I found the horned owl to be com- 

 paratively rare in the Ungava district. From intelligent and trust- 

 worthy sources, I have learned that this species of owl is quite com- 

 mon near the head of Hamilton Inlet and the southern portion of 

 Labrador. The character of that region would indicate a greater 

 abundance of birds of prey than in the sparsely wooded district of 

 Ungava." 



Nesting. — Walter Raine (1896) reports a nest found at Sandwich 

 Bay, Labrador, April 17, 1895, and the label says: "The nest was 

 built in a spruce 15 feet from the ground, and made of twigs and 

 coarse grass." There is a set of two eggs in the Thayer collection, 

 taken at the same place by the same collector on May 1, 1896, with the 

 following data: "Nest made of sticks and weeds in tip of a spruce." 

 I have two sets of three eggs each in my collection, one from Hope- 

 dale, Labrador, and one from Grand Lake, Newfoundland, but no 

 description of the nests came with them. 



Major Bendire (1892) quotes Henry Reeks on a Newfoundland nest, 

 who says: "The only nest that came under my observation was built 

 on the ground on a tussock of grass in the center of a pond. The 

 same nest had been previously occupied for several years by a pair 

 of Geese (Bernicla canadensis)." 



In Florida, in Texas, and in Newfoundland, the great horned owl 

 has been reported as nesting on the ground. J. R. Whitaker has 

 sent me the following interesting notes from the latter locality: "On 

 April 1, 1922, I crossed over on the ice to an island in Junction River. 

 Part of this island is covered with a thick growth of spruce, and the 

 rest is more or less barren ; on this bare part stands the stump of what 

 must have been a large pine tree, about 15 feet high. * * * Floods 

 have washed the soil away from under the roots of the old stump, 

 leaving it standing on a tripod of roots. The snow was piled up all 

 around, except on one side; as I approached and was quite near, a 

 great horned owl scrambled out and flew to a pine tree about 30 yards 

 away, where it was joined by the male bird; both of them snapped 

 their bills loudly and hooted at me. I looked under the stump, and 

 there on the frozen ground, surrounded by snow, lay the eggs. There 

 was no nest, only about half a dozen owl's feathers. The bird had 

 made quite a beaten track going in and out. Directly after the thaw 

 came, the nest was submerged under 2 feet of water. The owls then 

 moved a distance of about 300 yards and laid a second clutch under a 

 prostrate dead pine, which had rolled from the top of a very steep, 

 sandy bank and lodged about halfway down; the roots held the butt 

 end up about 12 inches; stones and soil had rolled down the hill and 



