Interior of British North America. 49 



me of, and at once adopted, a ruse de guerre, and by making a 

 considerable circuit I entered the clump on the far side. It 

 happened to be only thick in places, and the deciduous trees 

 being at that season, of course, devoid of leaves, I walked tole- 

 rably easily, keeping a good look-out. I had a pointer-dog 

 with me, which I allowed to beat the ground, thinking perhaps 

 he might attract the attention of the Owl from me ; and I was 

 already so angry with the length of the chase that I determined 

 to blaze even if he rose a hundred yards from me. But to the 

 point at once : as I steadily made my way through the little 

 wood, up started friend " Arcticus," as unexpectedly as a snipe, 

 among the tops of the small aspens. ]\Iy gun rose to my shoulder 

 as quickly as if I had been on a bog in the " auld country,^' and 

 down dropped the quarry to a touch of No. 3 shot at thirty-two 

 yards. I need hardly say how delighted I was as T trudged 

 homeward to the fort, with a fine but very light-coloured spe- 

 cimen of the Great Horned Owl tied by my pocket-handkerchief 

 to the barrel of the gun over my shoulder. On a post-mortem 

 examination made at the inquest, the doctors agreed (for once) 

 as to the cause of death : but a jury of very eminent men divided 

 as to the identity of the deceased ; for friends on two sides ap- 

 peared, the one party claiming him as a true Bubo virginianus, 

 while others contend (for the contest is not yet ended) that his 

 Christian name should be ^' Arcticus." The case has been i-eferred 

 to the Chancery Court, whence it is hoped that the ward will 

 some day be extricated. The final decision will be of im- 

 portance to the progress of ornithology, as it will define the 

 limit to which we may go in varieties — local, accidental, or, if we 

 may so term them, permanent. In the meantime I shall assume 

 that the Great Horned Owls of North America are all B. virgini- 

 anus. "Km. I right — or any other man?" The Great Horned 

 Owl appears to be a common inhabitant of the interior of North 

 America, from Hudson^s Bay to the Rocky Mountains, and north 

 to the Arctic Circle — in fact, the whole of North America. 



Otus wilsonianus. 



The Long-eared Owl, an inhabitant of the whole of temperate 

 North America, is given in the ' Fauna Bor.-Am.' up to 60° N. 

 latitude, while a specimen has been supplied to the Smithsonian 



VOL. V. E 



