AMERICAN HAWK OWL 379 



but before the parent could serve the rest, this young one resumed its 

 calling." 



Plumages. — I have not seen the downy young of the hawk owl, or 

 any very small young, showing the development of the ju venal 

 plumage. In a half-grown young, in juvenal plumage, the upper 

 parts are largely "snuff brown" or "cinnamon-brown"; the feathers 

 of the crown and hind neck are tipped with pale grayish buff, giving 

 a frosted appearance; the back and scapulars are indistinctly tipped 

 with the same color; the under parts are pale buff, or buffy white, 

 shaded across the chest and barred elsewhere with "Verona brown", 

 or sooty brown; the facial-disk feathers are dull whitish, tipped with 

 black; the thighs and lower abdomen are still downy, pale buff, and 

 faintly barred. Before the young bird is fully grown, late in June 

 or in July, the wings and tail are grown, and the first winter plumage 

 begins to appear on the back and on the sides of the breast; the drab 

 crown, with its gray tips, is about the last of the juvenal plumage to 

 be replaced by the first winter plumage. This is much like the adult 

 plumage, but there is less white spotting on the upper parts, the 

 barring on the under parts is a more reddish brown, and the tail is more 

 broadly tipped with, white. 



Adults have one complete molt in summer and fall. 



Food. — Dr. Fisher (1893b) says: "The food of this Owl varies 

 considerably at different times of the year. In summer it feeds on 

 the smaller mammals, such as mice, lemmings, and ground squirrels as 

 well as insects of various kinds, while in winter, when the snow is deep 

 and its favorite food is hidden, it follows the large flocks of ptarmigans 

 and subsists on them." 



Dr. Coues (1874) says: "It feeds chiefly upon the field mice (Arvi- 

 colae) which swarm in the sphagnous vegetation of arctic lands; also 

 upon small birds, grasshoppers, and other insects." 



A. D. Henderson (1919) writes: "On one occasion when loading 

 some hay cocks, which had been left out and snowed under, a Hawk 

 Owl followed us around the meadow looking for mice as the cocks 

 were lifted. Once it perched on the hayrack itself. On another 

 occasion, when driving to Edmonton, I noticed one which had just 

 caught a large white weasel or ermine. I wanted the weasel and tried 

 to scare it into dropping it by shooting, but there was nothing doing 

 and it flew away with its prize." 



Elsewhere (1925) he says: "Mice and weasel are the only animals 

 I have seen captured by the Owl, and the former seem to be the source 

 of its principal food supply. I have seen them with portions of varying 

 hare and Sharp-tailed Grouse, but those were probably remnants from 

 the meal of some animal or larger bird of prey." Forbush (1927) 

 says that "it has been seen to kill and carry off a Ruffed Grouse." 



