VOl i906^ ni ] Deane, Unusual Abundance of Snowy Owls. 285 



— one from Esquimeaux Point late in September, 1905, one from 

 Kamomraska, and several from localities from fifty to one hun- 

 dred miles from the city, while others were killed in November at 

 near by points. One specimen had been brought in badly soiled 

 by soot. It had been killed with a stick, having descended the 

 chimney into a room. It is presumed that while perching on the 

 chimney top, it had involuntarily fallen into the flue. In a later 

 letter from Mr. Dionne, dated Feb. 15, 1906, he writes that he is 

 still receiving specimens. 



Mr. Napoleon A. Comeau, Godbout, P. Q., writes under date 

 of March 19, 1906, that the migration of Snowy Owls the past winter 

 did not compare with the numbers which visited them in the winter 

 of 1901-2. The first one noted was on Oct. 27, 1905, and since 

 that date some had been in evidence most of the time. He shot 

 one specimen on March 17. One man at Pointe de Monts, P. Q., 

 had killed about forty since their arrival in the fall. Mr. Comeau 

 states that within a radius of twenty miles from Godbout about one 

 hundred and fifty of these owls had been killed, and as there was 

 no migration of murres or dovekies this year, the want of this food 

 supply may account for their non-appearance in as large numbers 

 as on previous flights. Some of the stomachs examined by Mr. 

 Comeau contained portions of the red squirrel, northern hare, mice, 

 ptarmigan, and the Long-tailed Duck (Harelda hyemnJis), and one 

 had some remains of a musk-rat; there were also some seeds in the 

 crop, but he presumed these were from some bird whose crop he 

 had swallowed. Mr. Comeau writes that there was a moderate 

 migration of ptarmigan the past winter. 



Province of Ontario. 



Mr. J. H. Fleming of Toronto, Ont., informs me, under date 

 of Jan. 2, 1906, that there had been no unusual migration of Snowy 

 Owls in that section and' he could only report records of five, all 

 taken near the city at dates between Nov. 13, and Dec. 12, 1905. 

 It is rather surprising that the present flight should have skipped 

 this territory, for during the previous incursion of four years ago, 

 considerably over one hundred were killed and observed in Toronto 

 and vicinity. 



