STRIGID.E — THE OWLS. 



77 



Surnia ulida. 



taken off the coast of Cornwall in March, 1830 ; another was shot near 

 Yatton, in Somersetshire, on a sunny afternoon in August, 1847 ; a third 

 had previously been taken at Mary- 

 liill, near Glasgow, in December, 1863. 

 On the Pacific • coast it has not been 

 taken farther south than Alaska, 

 though it is quite probable it may yet 

 l)e found to be an occasional visitant 

 in AVashington Territory and Oregon, 

 and even the northern portions of 

 California. It remains all the winter 

 in high northern latitudes, and the 

 instances of its having been taken 

 even in Massachusetts, so far as is 

 now known, are not many. "Wilson 

 only met with two specimens. Au- 

 dubon and Nuttall never met with 

 one of tliese birds alive. 



Mr. Downes states that the Hawk 

 Owl is very abundant in Nova Scotia 



in the winter time in some years, but may not be seen again for four or 

 five seasons. It is common in New^foundland, where it breeds in the 

 Caribou districts. Mr. Downes often kept living specimens in confinement, 

 ^vhich had been taken on board the Cunard steamers off the coast. 



Mr. Boardman gives this species as resident, though rare, in the neighbor- 

 hood of Calais, being occasionally found there in the breeding-season. In 

 Oxford County, Maine, Professor A. E. Verrill says it is a common autumnal 

 and winter visitant, and that it is quite abundant from the first of November 

 to the middle of March, but not found there in the sunnner. Mr. Allen 

 has never met with it in Western Massachusetts. Near Boston, in some 

 seasons, it is not uncommon, though never occurring with any frequency, 

 and only singly. It is found throughout the State, and is probably more com- 

 mon late in November than at any other time ; several having been taken 

 in Westfield, and also in Berkshire County, among tlie Green Mountains. I 

 am not aware that any have been taken farther south than Philadel])hia, 

 near which city Mr. Edward Harris obtained one si)ecimen, Miiile another 

 was shot at Haddington in 1866. ]\Ir. Mcllwraith calls it a rare winter 

 visitant near Hamilton, Canada. 



Iiichardson states that it is a common species throughout the fur 

 countries from Hudson Bay to the Pacific, where it is killed by tlie hunters 

 more frequently than any other, which may be attributed to its bold- 

 ness and to its diurnal habits. During the summer season it feeds princi- 

 pally upon mice and insects, but in the regions in which it is found in win- 

 ter, where the snow is very deep, and where this food is not procurable, it 



