214 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Nesting. — Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1905) say: "On the 23d 

 of May, Dr. Richardson discovered a nest of this Owl, built on the top 

 of a lofty balsam-poplar, composed of sticks, with a lining of feathers. 

 It contained three young birds, covered with a whitish down, to 

 secure which it was necessary to cut down the tree. While this was 

 going od, the parent birds flew in circles around the tree, keeping out 

 of gunshot, and apparently undisturbed by the light." Roderick 

 MacFarlane (1891) found a nest "on the 19th July, 1862, near Lock- 

 hart River, on the route to Fort Good Hope. It was built on a pine 

 spruce tree at a height of about twenty feet, and was composed of 

 twigs and mosses thinly lined with feathers and down. It contained 

 two eggs and two young, both of which had lately died." 



During his trip down the Mackenzie River in 1904, Edward A. 

 Preble (1908) discovered a nest, of which he writes: 



While passing an extensive "brul6" on the left bank during the afternoon o 

 June 6 I noticed a large nest on a tree about a hundred yards up the side of the 

 valley from the river. On a nearer approach a large gray head became visible 

 over the edge of the nest, and I realized that I had discovered a nest of the great 

 gray owl. Making a landing, I made my way through the tangled mass of fallen 

 timber to the base of the tree and by a few raps with the ax induced the sitting 

 bird to leave the nest. She darted with a rapid swooping flight toward the nearest 

 woods, but as I desired her for a specimen, I shot her before she gained its shelter. 

 The nest was about 50 feet up in a large dead and leaning spruce; and as I did not 

 dare to climb it, I felled the tree to secure the young birds which I felt sure the nest 

 contained. They proved to be two in number, evidently 2 or 3 weeks old, and 

 were clothed with grayish down. In the nest were the partially eaten remains of 

 three young rabbits about the size of red squirrels. The nest was a platform of 

 sticks, nearly flat and practically without lining, and measured about 2 feet in 

 diameter. 



A. D. Henderson sent me a set of three eggs of the great gray owl 

 which he took near Belvedere, Alberta, on April 30, 1922; the nest was 

 about 40 feet up in the crotch of a balsam poplar, in poplar woods; it 

 was an old hawk's nest built up by the owls with twigs, well cupped and 

 lined with bark strips and a few feathers; incubation was slight. 



Mr. Henderson (1915 and 1923) has published some notes on eight 

 other nests of this owl, found by him near Belvedere. These were all 

 in poplar woods or mixed poplar and spruce woods. One was placed 

 in a dead poplar and the others were iu live balsam poplars or aspen 

 poplars; two were 50 feet, one 45, one 40, three 35, and one 30 feet 

 from the ground. They were all old nests of goshawks, red-tailed 

 hawks, or broad- winged hawks and had very little or no lining brought 

 in by the owls. 



Frank L. Farley writes to me that this owl nests in the muskeg 

 country "less than 100 miles north of Edmonton. On May 7, 1931, 

 A. C. Twomey found a nest in which were four eggs. This nest was 

 placed in the crotch of a poplar tree about 50 feet from the ground. 



