GREAT HORNED OWL 319 



Referring to the same flight, J. Dewey Soper (1918) says: "The point 

 of interest lies in the fact that the Horned Owls were apparently absent 

 from the north country at the time of my trip October 20-November 

 6 ; common on my return to Preston, Ont., November 7, and apparently 

 so at other points in southern Canada." Mr. Forbush (1927) men- 

 tions other similar flights. He says also: "Mr. H. A. P. Smith 

 writing from Digby, Nova Scotia, March 14, 1923, says that a Great 

 Horned Owl was found there sitting upright in an apple tree frozen 

 stiff. Probably his tightly clinched talons froze to the limb and held 

 him there in death; but the bird would not have been frozen had it had 

 food enough to keep up the animal heat in its body." 

 Dr. Errington (1932a) writes: 



Prior to 1932, it was noted casually that horned owls were apt to station 

 themselves in the fall in the near neighborhood of old stick nests (hawk or crow) 

 which they would appropriate in the spring. During the season of 1931-1932 this 

 was checked up more carefully. In the late fall, 1931, five horned owl territories 

 were discovered in regular use (judged by birds seen and by accumulations of feces 

 and pellets beneath roost trees), of which four proved to be nesting areas. 



Three other nesting areas, not actually visited in the fall, betrayed by old 

 pellets their early occupancy. Exception: one pair did not move into their nest- 

 ing territory until January or later, though breeding was not delayed, as incuba- 

 tion had started by February 21, 1932. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — The greater part of the Western Hemisphere except only 

 the islands of the Caribbean and the Arctic Archipelago. Non- 

 migratory. 



The range of the horned owl extends north to Alaska (Allakaket, 

 Wiseman, and Fort Yukon); Mackenzie (Fort McPherson, Fort 

 Good Hope, probably Sarahk Lake, and Stone Island in Great Slave 

 Lake); Manitoba (Fort Churchill and York Factory); Ungava (Fort 

 Chimo); and Labrador (Okak). East to Labrador (Okak, Turnivik 

 Island, Hopedale, and Rigolet) ; Quebec (Sandwich Bay, Muddy Bay, 

 and Lance au Loup); Newfoundland (Raleigh and Glenwood); Nova 

 Scotia (Pictou and Halifax); Maine (Calais, Bangor, and Auburn); 

 Massachusetts (Danvers, Boston, Plymouth, and Woods Hole); 

 Long Island, N. Y. (East Patchogue); New Jersey (Princeton and 

 Sea Isle City); Virginia (Spottsville and Dismal Swamp); North 

 Carolina (probably Areola, Raleigh, and probably Cape Fear); 

 South Carolina (Waverly Mills, Mount Pleasant, and Frogmore); 

 Georgia (Savannah, Blackbeard Island, and probably Okefinokee 

 Swamp) ; Florida (St. Augustine, San Mateo, New Smyrna, Merritt 

 Island, probably Sebastian, probably Bassinger, Fort Lauderdale, 

 and Westlake); Tamaulipas (Soto La Marina); Puebla (Orizaba); 

 Yucatan (Chichen-Itza) ; Brazil (Matto Grosso and Agua Blanco de 

 Corumba); Paraguay (Fort Wheeler) ; Argentina (Upper Rio Chico, 



