434 Fleming and Lloyd, Ontario Bird Notes. Uuly 



and from what was learned, there must have been serious losses of pure 

 bred stock, besides the large number of ordinary fowls destroyed; at least 

 the owls had managed to keep fat, during one of the coldest winters known 

 in Southern Ontario. 



Believing the owls had probably not arrived in one flight, fifty-three 

 were gathered together in the workshops of Mr. Oliver Spanner, from 

 among those taken before the middle of December; and on sorting them 

 some support for this theory was found. There were twenty seven Arc- 

 tic Horned Owls, Bubo virginianus subarcticus, representing both the light 

 and dark phases; ten were referred to the Labrador Horned Owl, Bubo 

 virginianus heterocnemis, some of them very dark; of the remainder fifteen 

 were difficult to place, the majority were darker than the Great Horned 

 Owl, Bubo virginianus virginianus, usually resident here, and possibly some 

 were colour phases of the Labrador bird. An owl taken on October 22nd 

 belonged to the resident type. The remaining one taken at Toronto on 

 November 12th was perhaps the most interesting; it was light but with 

 much more ochraceus, than any of the Arctic Horned Owls with which it 

 was compared and approached closely a skin of Bubo virginianus occi- 

 dental's, Stone, from North Dakota, from which it differed, in having less 

 ochraceus at the base of the feathers, and darker edgings to the feathers 

 of the breast and back. The first Arctic Horned Owls were taken on 

 October 27th, but the migration was not in full swing till the middle of 

 November, when birds dark enough to be assigned to the Labrador Horn- 

 ed Owl began to come with the lighter coloured ones, and after 

 that the two were mixed together in the same territory. Though it was 

 impossible to asign any route for the migration, it is likely the owls, on 

 reaching the north shore of Lake Ontario, drifted east. The information 

 about the food conditions is largely due to the interest taken in the mat- 

 ter by Mr. H. M. Sheppard, who skinned and mounted many of the owls. 

 —J. H. F. 



Chordeiles virginianus virginianus. Nighthawk. — One was seen 

 on September 30, 1918, and four on October 10, 1918, at Toronto. The 

 last ones were observed at close range for some time. — H. L. 



Archilochus colubris. Ruby-throated Hummingbird. — It is not 

 always easy to tell when the adult Hummingbirds leave Ontario. On 

 July 5th, 1911, after one of the hottest weeks ever recorded in Southern 

 Ontario, the adult male Ruby-throats began to pass through my garden 

 in Toronto, and from then until the 18th, at least one was seen every day. 

 In 1914, I saw adult males in the garden from July 8th to 10th, when they 

 disappeared, and no more Hummingbirds were seen till white throated 

 birds appeared on the 26th, and were present every day till August 9th, 

 but it was impossible to tell if there were any old females among them. 

 At Lake Joseph, Muskoka, I met with a family party consisting of the 

 old brds and two fully fledged young on August 17th, 1917, which would 

 indicate that the old birds do not all leave in July. — J. H. F. 



