HAWK OWL. 183 
SURNIA FUNEREA. 
HAWK OWL. 
Strix canadensis, Briss. Orn. i. p. 518, pl. xxxvii. fig. 2 (1760). 
Strix freti-hudsonis, Briss. Orn. i. p. 520 (1760). 
Strix funerea, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 133 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
(Bonaparte), (Gould), (Strickland), Middendorff, Schrenck, Radde, (Dresser), 
(Newton), &e. 
Strix caparoch, Mill. Natursyst. Suppl. i. p. 69 (1776, ex Edwards). 
Strix hudsonia, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 295 (1788). 
Strix nisoria, Meyer, Taschenb. p. 84 (1810). 
Surnia canadensis (Lriss.), Steph. Shaw’s Gen. Zool. xiii. pt. ii. p. 62 (1825). 
Stryx doliata, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-As. i. p. 316 (1826). 
Noctua nisoria (Meyer), Cuv. Régne An. i. p. 344 (1829). 
Surnia borealis, Less. Trazté, i. p. 100 (1831). 
Surnia hudsonia (G'mel.), James. ed. Wils. Am. Orn. i. p. 90 (1831). 
Noctua funerea (Linn.), Jen. Brit. Vert. p. 526 (1835). 
Surnia funerea (Linn.), Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. § N. Amer. p. 6 (1838). 
Syrnia funerea (Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. i. p. 189 (1840). 
Nycthierax nisoria (Meyer), Meves, Ofv. Kongl. Vet.-Ak. Forh. 1879, p. 39. 
Surnia ulula (Linn.), apud Bonaparte, (Schlegel), Cassin, Sharpe, &c. 
At least six examples of a species of Hawk Owl have been obtained in 
the British Islands within the last half-century, particulars of which are 
given below. Some writers, as Sharpe and Dresser, consider the American 
and European Hawk Owls “ perfectly distinct species ;” others, as Baird, 
Brewer, and Ridgway, make the Palearctic form only subspecifically 
distinct from the Nearctic form; whilst Newton, in his edition of 
*Yarrell’s British Birds, unites the two forms without note or comment 
of any kind respecting the alleged differences between them. 
There are in reality three varieties of the Hawk Owl. S. hudsonia is the 
American form, scarcely differing at all in the colour of the upper parts 
from the typical bird, except that the white bands on the tail are rather 
more developed, also the white spots on the quills, feathers of the head, and 
seapulars. On the underparts the difference is much more striking; the 
dark transverse bands are much redder (chestnut-brown instead of greyish 
brown) and broader (varying from one to two of white, instead of two to 
four, to one of brown). The typical or European form, for which the only 
name that has not been misapplied is S. nisoria, is an intermediate form 
between the American one and the Siberian or Arctic one. The latter, 
S. doliata, differs from the European form in having the white parts purer 
white and the dark parts darker and greyer. The differences between 
these three varieties, however, are very small, and not much greater than 
those of age, sex, and season. Females and young males are paler on the 
upper parts, and have the dark bars on the underparts slightly broader and 
more rufous than adult males. In young females these differences are still 
more pronounced. | 
