186 



wriglit also bears testimony, so far as his much shorter ex- 

 perience goes, to the same general effect, adding that the 

 Hawk-Owl will strike down the Siberian Jay while on the 

 wing, and that he has more than once found it feeding on 

 the Willow-Grouse ; but smaller birds and mice of various 

 kinds together with insects form its usual prey. 



In the Fur-countries of North America Kichardson says 

 the Hawk-Owl is resident and abundant throughout the year, 

 constantly attending the flocks of Ptarmigan on their spring 

 migrations to the northward. " When the hunters," he 

 adds, "are shooting Grouse, this bird is occasionally at- 

 tracted by the report of a gun, and is often bold enough, on 

 a bird being killed, to pounce down upon it, though it may 

 be unable from its size to carry it off. It is also known to 

 hover round the fires made by the natives at night." 



A specimen killed in Lapland, and presented to the Zoolo- 

 gical Society by Captain Everett, has the beak white ; the 

 irides straw-yellow ; facial disk dull white, bounded on the 

 sides by a semilunar dark purplish-brown patch extending 

 from the ears downwards ; head, back of the neck, and upper 

 part of the shoulders, mottled with dusky black and dull 

 white ; back and wings dark umber-brown ; lower part of 

 the back barred with dull white ; tertials elongated, loose, 

 and downy, covering great part of the wing, and barred 

 alternately with dusky brown and white ; tail above dusky 

 brown, with six or seven narrow bars and a broader terminal 

 band of dull white. Chin dusky ; throat and a band across 

 the upper part of the breast dull white ; breast, belly, and 

 under tail-coverts, dull white, with numerous narrow bars of 

 dusky brown ; tail beneath barred alternately with greyish- 

 brown and dull white ; feathers of the tarsi and toes greyish- 

 white ; claws white at the base, tipped with bluish-black. 



The whole length of the bird is about seventeen inches, 

 the female being somewhat larger than the male. 



This species has been much confounded by nomenclators 

 with Tengmalm's and the Short-eared Owl. 



