134 ACADIAN OWL— SAW-WHET OWL— LITTLE OWL. 



stages of the Screech or Mottled Owl, and remarked that among 

 these the ;W were perhaps in the proportion of one to fifty. In 

 the present instance the small proportion of iaii'ny to the ordinary 

 found plumage is much more remarkable, and may be given as 

 but one in a thousand. Are we, then, really to believe that, while 

 we have such numerous occurrences of typical Acadian Owls, or in 

 other words, of undoubtedly mature birds, we have only occasional 

 accidental occurrence of the young and immature form ? We can 

 hardly conceive of such a case, unless indeed it could be demon- 

 strated that these young birds remained by themselves .in some 

 out-of-the-way breeding resort until they had attained their matui^e 

 plumage — save, perchance, a stray individual or two which hap- 

 pened to migrate with the older birds into our borders. On the 

 other hand, supposing the taivny form (Kirtland's Owl) to be a 

 distinct and valid species, we have still to contend with 

 the fact of its imiversal rarity, which again suggests an idea ol 

 improbability, for we can hardly at the present day conceive of 

 a valid species being so rare as that only some dozen specimens 

 of it have — all told — been taken. Surely somewhere such a species 

 must be represented by a greater number of individuals, or it must 

 be on the verge of extinction. In this last case, however, we 

 should naturally expect to find in the records of the past some 

 notice of its era; but such is not the case respecting Kirtland's 

 Owl. Indeed most of the specimens we know anything about 

 have been taken within the last twenty or twenty-five years, and 

 the larger number of these in Canada. One other view of this 

 question may be taken, and by me it seems by far the most reason- 

 able one, namely, that connected w^ith the melanism or melanotic 

 condition peculiar to several species of both the Falconidcc and 

 Strigidcr. This would at once seem to give all the explanation 

 necessary, for we know that such melanism w^ould affect only an 

 occasional indi\idual of the species, — under, perhaps, peculiar cir- 

 cumstances, — and hence the very few occurrences of the iazuny 

 form known as Kirtland's Owl. As I have already stated, how- 

 ever, the whole question is yet involved in much uncertainty, and 

 until further facts and specimens have been collected, it cannot be 

 explained satisfactorily. 



