468 THE RICHARDSON OWL. 



but ihe few specimens which straggle dnwii tliis way in winter are never left 

 long to their own devices. The most we know of them is that when folded 

 away in the cabinet drawer they look like great gray babies, over-rash to 

 have letl the protection of the northern nnrser\'. 



Dr. Cooper killed a specimen of this CJwl, a female, on the loth of June, 

 1854, near Shoalwater Bay, at a spot described as "a brackish meadow, par- 

 tially co\-ered with small spruce trees," and he surmised froiu this circum- 

 stance that the liirds nested in the \icinity. Air. Lawrence reports'' the 

 taking of a specimen near Ocosla, in May : and we liave a clear accoimt, from 

 a layman, of the occurrence of two individuals of this species, in June, near 

 Lake Kacliees, in Kittitas County. It looks as tho it were not impossible, 

 therefore, that the bird should breed within our limits. Suttice it to say that 

 the man who takes its eggs in Washington will gain oological immortality. 



No. 186. 

 RICHARDSON'S OWL. 



A. O. v. No. 371. QIaux funerea richardsoni ( Bonap.). 



Synonym. — Arctic Aimerican Saw-wiii;t ( )wi,. 



Description. — .-Idiilt: ITpperparts nearly uniform dark brown spotted with 

 white. — spots oil top of head small and numerous, larger on hindneck where more 

 or less confluent in collar, larger and more scarce on back and wing-coverts, oc- 

 curring in pairs on wing-quills and tail-feathers: underparts white heavily 

 streaked with color of back, markings tending to confluence on chest ; flanks and 

 tarsi huffy spotted with brown ; facial disk chiefly white, but lores and eyelids 

 blackish immediately surrounded with dark brown flecked with white. Bill ycllozv 

 above, shading on sides. Iminatiivc: Upperparts brown without white spotting, 

 save on tail and wings; facial disk uniformly dark, save for white of upper edge; 

 underparts unmarked, plain brownish changing to buffy posteriorly. Measure- 

 ments of the Glacier specimen: length 10.00 (254) : wing 6.44 (163.6) ; tail 3.70 

 (94): tarsus .92 (23.4): culmen .60 (15.2) — smaller than the average. 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size: without ear-tufts: heavily spotted above; 

 linely white-spotted on crown, and tarsus sjiottcd with brown as compared with 

 G. acadiciis, larger. 



Nesting. — Much as in succeeding. Not known to breed in Washington. 



General Range. — Arctic America, soiUh in winter into the northern United 

 States, westerly south to Colorado and Oregon. Breeds from the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence and Manitoba northward. 



a. -Auk, \'o\. IX., Jan, 1892, p. 44. 



