BIRDS OF PREY. 



proper, and only in one or two localities, e.g., the extensive flats 

 near Chatham and Lake St. Clair, where, I am informed, it is a 

 regular summer visitant, feeding upon the carcasses of drowned 

 catde. It is not fiofured or further described in this work. 



t> 



The Falconid.e comprise five sub-families and a great number 

 of genera, which embrace all our Falcons, Hawks, Buzzards, 

 Harriers, and Eagles. 



The Strigid.c include all our Owls, which are likewise 

 arranged in five distinct sub-families, namely. Typical Owls, Horned 

 Owls, Gray Owls, Bird Owls, and Day Owls. Of these, the first 

 and third are not represented in Canada. About one hundred and 

 fifty species are known, forty of which belong to America and ten 

 to Canada. Until very recently however eleven species were set 

 down as Canadian ; but one of these, the Kirtland Owl, is now 

 thought to be merely the young form or red stage of the little 

 Acadian Owl, perhaps more generally known as the Saw-iu/ui Owl. 



Of the Typical Owls, or Sirigiucr, the Barn Owl is mentioned 

 by many authors as a species inhabiting the temperate parts of 

 North America ; but there is no authentic record ot its occurrence 

 in Canada. There are however stories in circulation of such an 

 occurrence, which, should they prove true, would enable us to 

 add this species to our list of rare stragglers. The bird has 

 been met with in Newfoundland, and is occasionally captured in 

 the New England and Middle States. One was taken in the city 

 of Lancaster, Penn. in a high church steeple, and was at the time 

 noted as " almost as rare a bird in this latitude as the Golden 

 Eagle." Another was taken near Springfield, Mass. in May, 1868 ; 

 and Dr. Wood, of East Windsor Hill, has, or had a specimen in 

 his cabinet that was shot at Sachem's Head, Conn, during 1865. 

 In a catalogue of the " Birds of Connecticut" Mr. Linsley records 

 the capture of another Barn Owl at Stratford. Altogether 

 perhaps, only about five or six birds of this species have been 

 taken in the whole of the Middle and New England States up to 

 the present year (1876), and consequently its extension into 

 Canada must be considered as merely accidental. It is not figured 

 or further described in the present work. 



