Genus SURNIA, Dumeril. 



Gen. Char. General form rather long, but robust ; size medium ; head moderate, without 

 ear-tufts ; facial disk obsolete. Bill moderate, curveJ from the base, covered with projecting 

 plumes; wings long; tail long, wide graduate J ; legs rather short, and wiih the toes densely 

 feathered. 



This genus contains one species only wliich inhabits the 

 northern retjions of both continents. 



Surnia Ulula var. Hudsonia (Gine.) Coues. 



HAWK OWL ; DAY OWL. 

 P1..4TE X.\X. 



Also known as the "Canada Owl," but this rather through- 

 out the northern parts of Europe and Great Britain than in 

 Canada. The typical Ulula belongs to Europe, the variety Hud- 

 sonia to America, and, according to the authors of the " Birds of 

 Europe," to Great Britain. This last is a very remarkable fact, 

 and it is further stated that it is the American form ox geographical 

 race which inhabits the British Islands apparently to the entire 

 exclusion of the other. Ornithologists long thought, and many yet 

 do, that the American and European Hawk Owls were absolutely 

 identical ; these, however, now j^rove to form two distinguishable 

 geographical races. The American bird is darker colored, and the 

 bars of the whole breast and belly are broader, " only a small 

 gorget being left white." The Hawk Owl is a strictly boreal 

 species, inhabiting the fur countries and the Arctic regions to a 

 very extreme latitude. It is even rare, as a general rule, in 

 Canada — numbers of winters passing in which few individuals have 

 been observed or taken. Occasionally, however — a fact already 

 recorded respecting the Snowy Owl — it appears rather numerously 

 around Montreal, Quebec, and in the Lower Provinces, whence it 

 also extends into the northern New England States. Rarely is 

 it met with as far south as Philadelphia ; and Coues says " from 

 Massachusetts southward its occurrence is rare and fortuitous." 

 One instance is recorded of its appearance in Bermuda (Drum- 



