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i"'-] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 541 



after he had beeu handled. The curious circuaistance of this incident 

 is the owl's persistently remaining during a forty- hours rainstorm on 

 this bare open place while powers of flight were unimpaired, and his 

 only injuries apparently a slight flesh wound on the wing. I have noted 

 several similar instances among hawks and owls. 



This specimen was: Length, 14i ; weight, 10 ounces; wing surface, 

 162 square inches, or IG^ to each ounce of weight. In its stomach was 

 a single large brown cricket ( Udenpsylla nigra)^ no doubt captured on 

 the ground where we found him. 



The short-eared owl is a great friend of mine; he turns up regularly every August 

 and September in the marshes and meadows both in Ontario and Manitoba, but I have 

 never seen them in the spring or summer, and as I spend most of my time during the 

 year in their favorite haunts, and never see them nesting or about, am strongly in- 

 clined to think they do not breed in the province, nor do they stay during the winter. 



On the 18th of April, 1885, at sunset, a large number of these birds came out of the 

 marsh aud quartered about over the prairie. One of them, however, after a time 

 rose high in the air and played about over a slough much after the manner of a Night 

 Hawk. I believe it was catching on the wing some of the aquatic beetles that were 

 rising from the water at the time. 



Early in the morning of the 25th of April one of these owls circled round my blind 

 for some time, frequently striking its wings together over its back, i)roduciug a loud 

 snapping noise. The same bird several times perched on a fence rail near me, this 

 being the only time I ever saw one alight on anything higher than a muskrat house 

 or a log imbedded in the mud. (Nash's MSS.) 



125. Syrnium nebulosum. Barred Owl. 



Rare and probably migratory. Winnipeg: Summer resident; rare; 

 arrives April 1 ; departs November 1 (Hine). Eed River Valley: Tol- 

 erably common in the wooded country east of Winnipeg, where it has 

 also been seen in February (Hunter). Was shown the wings of one shot 

 near Rat Portage in the fall of 1886 (Thompson). Portage la Prairie: 

 Very rare, only one seen near the Assiniboine, but I have occasionally 

 heard them hooting in the woods on the bank of the river in August 

 (Nash). 



126. Ulula cinerea. Great Gray Owl. 



Rare winter visitant ; one in Smithsonian Institution from Red River 

 Settlement (Blakistou). Found along Red River and at Lake Winnipeg 

 as a winter visitant, but not common (Hine). Carberry : One taken 

 September 29, 1884 (Thompson). 



On September 29, 1884, received from George Mersham a fine Gray 

 Owl which he had shot in the woods to the south. It was a young male ; 

 length 25, extension 54; weight, 26 ounces; wing surface, 480 square 

 inches, i. e., 18^3- to each ounce of weight, nearly twice that of the 

 turkey vulture shot yesterday ; tail surface 100 square inches. In a re- 

 mote corner of its spacious stomach I discovered a tiny shrew {Sorex 

 cooperi f) and the rest of this capacious receptacle was unoccupied. 



