44 Bird-Life in L((hr(i<lor. 



The Indians hunt the white owl wlien possible always with 

 two persons, each going in opposite directions, the one going 

 ahead and attracting his attention while the other crawls up to- 

 wards him. The owl appears to be unconscious that he is 

 watched by two individuals, and is thus shot without much 

 difficulty. They see easily in the daytime. They seem to 

 feed principally on mice, and I have often found skulls of the 

 same almost perfect in their bails or castings. I have heard 

 them hoot only when, being alarmed, they Hy to some place 

 of su Imposed safety. I got very close to one one day when 

 without my gun, he .seemed to be perfectly white. Many intel- 

 ligent persons with whom I conversed on the subject, and who 

 had shot a good many owls upon the coast, insisted that the 

 ])lumage of the white owl, in Labrador at least, was pure 

 white in Winter, the sj)ots and speckles appearing in the 

 Spring, deepening in the Summer and Autumn, and that the 

 Fall moult leaves them white again. I sought answers to this 

 question of pure white plumage in several distinct localities 

 with always the same result, as above. The birds, they say, 

 arc never shot in a white dress at any other time than in mid- 

 Winter, the amount of white being a true mark of the season. 

 The flesh of the white owl, if the bird be not too old, is es- 

 leemed good eating by the people on the coast. I saw evi- 

 dences of newly-killed birds at several places that I visited, 

 in the shape of wings, feathers, etc., and when asked what be- 

 came of the bird the people would answer, " we eat it, sir ! " 

 At a distance, when perched upon some hilltop, one can 

 hardly distinguish the white owl from a caj) of snow. The 

 whit*' owl, the jxreat black-backed y-ull, and the raven have 

 probably been tiie targets for more charges, and extra large 

 charges at that, of ])owder and shot then any other birds of 

 the fauna of Labrador tliat either myself (u- my friends fired 

 at while on tlie coast. 



MARSH HAWK 



Cir<-iis ciidinii.-i hiidxoiiiiis. — (L.) Scilf.. 

 ^Iv notes on this sjiccies give the satisfacloi'v record of 



