CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 277 
while crossing Ungava. (Spreadborough.) A rare resident in the 
Ottawa district. (Ottawa Naturalist, Vol. V.) This species is gener- 
ally distributed throughout Ontario and is very variable in colour. 
(Mclwraith.) A common breeding species and a resident in the 
districts of Parry Sound and Muskoka ; common around Toronto, 
Ont.; also in Algonquin Park, a few breed. (/. H. Fleming.) 
On the 29th March, 1897, 1 took one of these birds whose 
stomach contained the greater part of a crow, primaries and all. 
If this powerful rascal is in the habit of paying nocturnal visits to 
the roosting places of the crows in bad weather it is small 
wonder that the retaliative instinct asserts itself in daylight. (/. 
Hughes-Samuel.) Well distributed throughout the London dis- 
trict; breeding in large nests in the early spring. (W. £. Saunders.) 
The typical form occurs in British Columbia as well as ‘every 
possible intergrade between the darkest saturatus and subarcticus, 
almost light enough for axcticus. (Brooks.) A discussion of the 
horned owls of Washington and British Columbia will be found 
in an article in Zhe Auk, Vol. X., p. 18 (1893). It is probable that 
all the races of Bubo virginianus are to be tound in British Colum- 
bia. (2Rhoads.) 
BREEDING Notes.—When we first came to Muskoka they were 
very rare, I only observed two in twenty years, but during that 
time the barred owl was very abundant. Since the horned owl 
has become common it has almost disappeared and now one sel- 
dom hears or sees one and the horned has become just as common 
as the barred used to be. This leads me to think that it has been 
killed or driven away by the other. The horned owl 1s not 
beneath killing a mouse if there is no larger game about but I 
think hares are its chief food during the winter. It kills a good 
many skunks in the summer. On one occasion my brothers found 
one that had seized a skunk which had bitten it so badly that it 
had died from the wounds. It kills muskrats in the fall when 
they are building their houses and when they are out upon the 
marshes getting grass to build with. One night two winters ago 
one came into a barn-yard and killed two geese. The farmer 
caught it ina trap a few nights after. These owls are usually 
found along the rivers and streams in thick woods. The western 
form in Manitoba and the northwest is usually found in willow 
thickets along the banks of streams and the edges of sloughs. 
I have seen them time and again fly from a log or a stone, up 
