THE AKGTIC HOKNED OWL, 387 



Fort Custer, Montana, I received several Owls wliicli ajiproached this form, 

 being intermediate between it and the Western Horned Owl, Init none were 

 perfect types of either. 



Mr. R. MacFarlane met with the Ai-ctic Horned Owl in tlie country 

 between Fort Good Hope on the Lower Mackenzie and the Anderson River 

 region, within the Ai'ctic circle, and in a collection of birds and eggs recently 

 received from him is a very light colored female of this race, a perfectly 

 typical specimen from Moose Lake, eastern Saskatchewan, shot in May, 1890, 

 which probably marks nearly tlie soutliern limit of its breeding range. These 

 l)irds feed on tlie numerous waterfowl, Ptarmigan, and tlie Arctic hares inhab- 

 iting these regions, and are probably common enough in sultalile localities, 

 where an abundance of food is easily obtainable. 



Nothuig is as yet known about their mode of nesting or their eggs, which 

 are not likely to differ from those of the preceding races. 



136. Bubo virginianus saturatus Ridgway. 



DUSKY HORNED OWL. 



Bubo virginianus saturatus Ridgway, Ornithology of the 40th Par., 1877, 572, foot- 

 note. 

 (B 48, part; C 3176, R 405c, C 464, U 375c.) 



Geographical range: From Labrador and Hudson Bay; west through the inte- 

 rior to Alaska, and south proljably througli all the higher regions of the Rocky and 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains; south to Arizona (San Francisco Mountain). 



The range of the Dusky Homed Owl, the darkest colored of the different 

 races of the genus Bubo, has until recently been supposed to be confined to 

 the coast regi(ins of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska Terri- 

 tory. As it is well known to occur also in Labrador — and, furthennore, to 

 breed there, showing that it is not an accidental straggler — it probably also 

 inhabits the WMjoded regions of the interior, covered with hardy spruce and 

 pine forests, which connect these widely separated points, and reach from the 

 North Atlantic Ocean nearly to Bering and the Arctic Sea. As yet, however, 

 no specimens of this race have been obtained from the interior of British North 

 America. This is not surprising when we consider the fact that this large bird 

 lias until very recently been overlooked in regions far more accessible than 

 the so-called "fur countries." 



During a liiological survey, conducted under the direction of Dr. C. Hart 

 Merriam, Chief of the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy, U. S. De])art- 

 ment of Aginculture, made in August and September, 1880, and which resulted 

 in some extremely interesting discoveries, a specimen of this dark colored race 

 was shot on September 14, in the jiine belt on San Francisco ^louutain, central 

 Arizona. Another was seen at the same time, and they are reported as toler- 

 ably common in that vicinity. This extends the range of this race south to 

 latitude So"" N. 



