322 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Labrador and Newfoundland: 4 records, April 3 to May 2. 



Alberta: 26 records, February 23 to May 29; 13 records, March 15 

 to April 5, indicating the height of the season. 



New York and New England: 66 records, January 18 to May 8; 

 33 records, February 28 to March 21. 



Pennsylvania and New Jersey: 30 records, January 21 to May 2; 

 15 records, February 23 to March 5. 



Florida: 9 records, December 7 to March 30. 



Ohio to Iowa: 21 records, February 1 to May 28; 11 records, Febru- 

 ary 8 to March 9. 



British Columbia to Oregon: 9 records, March 2 to April 23. 



California: 106 records, January 29 to April 17; 53 records, February 

 25 to March 23. 



Lower California: 3 records, January 31, February 2, and April 19. 



Arizona and New Mexico: 9 records, February 28 to May 3. 



Texas: 48 records, January 12 to June 12; 24 records, February 12 

 to March 12. 



BUBO VIRGINIANUS PALLESCENS Stone 



western horned owl 

 Plate 76 



HABITS 



Contributed by Milton Philo Skinner 



While there is a general resemblance between the eastern horned owl 

 and the western forms, there are some differences. Most charac- 

 teristic, in the old days, was the preference of the westerners for ro- 

 dents, rather than for birds. Perhaps this was due to the comparative 

 wildness of the West, as well as to favorable habitat, which permitted 

 the many kinds of small rodents to exist in astonishing numbers. 

 Now that the rodents are everywhere disappearing, the big owls may 

 turn to birds as they have done in the East. But the western horned 

 owls, in common with other raptors, are now, themselves, the objects 

 of a pitiless persecution and destruction that is sadly decreasing their 

 numbers. 



Spring. — It is not certain that there is any real migration of horned 

 owls in any part of the Western United States, although at times, 

 under stress of cold or hunger, Canadian birds may come south in 

 great numbers. 



Courtship. — So little is really known of the courtship of these big 

 birds that it is a distinct pleasure to read Chief Ked Eagle (1929). 

 He says: 



It was well after sundown one evening in the early part of the past winter. 

 * * * J was quietly picking my way eastward along the rocky bed of a rather 

 deep and narrow canyon at the southern edge of the Capitan Mountains of New 



