438 General Notes. [*fij* 



gave the fine hawk to a friend of the writer, who has taxidermic propen- 

 sities, when it was identified as the Goshawk. This bird probably had its 

 nest in the woods along the pasture. 



A more remarkable instance came to the writer's notice at High Falls, 

 Wright County, Quebec, fifty miles northeast of Ottawa. There, one 

 morning last February, Mr. Hugo Paeseler, a farmer, on going out into the 

 woods adjoining his farm, noticed a space of about ten to fifteen feet 

 square, where the snow had recently been much disturbed, deeply plowed 

 up from some great commotion. That a fierce fight had been going on 

 but a short while before was evident from the liberal quantities of blood 

 sprinkled on the snow and the masses of feathers, single and in whole 

 bunches, lying about and adhering to bushes and trees. On looking around 

 for the principals of the fight, he found about ten feet away in one direction 

 a Goshawk, lying on the snow with wings extended and frozen stiff. About 

 ten feet away from the scene of hostilities, in the opposite direction, he 

 found an owl, more damaged than the hawk, but still warm. It had 

 alighted after the fight on a small spruce and fallen off, as the snow showed, 

 and with its last strength crawled into a small log, lying with its hollow 

 part conveniently near. The farmer took both along home, skinned and 

 "stuffed" — here that term is appropriate — the hawk, and also the 

 head of the owl, which was all he could make use of in her case. When 

 the writer saw them at the farm house, they turned out to be the Barred 

 Owl and the American Goshawk. It must surely have been a battle royal, 

 if one could only have witnessed it. The farmer, quite a shrewd observer, 

 tells me, that the same hawks are there winter and summer, which is, of 

 course, not to be wondered at, the place being right in the Goshawk range. 

 The writer's theory is, that the Goshawk, hungry and ill at ease from the 

 severe cold, while looking for its breakfast, encountered the owl, then 

 p*eacefully returning from its nightly foraging. In its usual injudicious- 

 ness, courage, fierceness, or whatever one may call it, he pounced down 

 upon the owl, which, however, had no desire to be made a meal of, and 

 defended herself so valiantly, that both had no more use for breakfasts. — 

 G. Eifrig, Ottawa, Ontario. 



Unusual Occurrence of the Short-eared Owl in Pennsylvania. — The 



Short-eared Owl (Asio accipitrinus) , is a rather frequent migrant and 

 winter resident in this section, occurring in small flocks wherever there is 

 a sufficient abundance of Microtus. Here they remain until about the 

 first of April, when they usually wend their way further north. This 

 year, however, was an exception, at least with one pair which I had the 

 fortune to observe. 



The first evidence of mating was noticed on March 28, when they were 

 noted sailing about in the dusk, occasionally giving vent to a peculiar 

 call — whaq, with a nasal intonation. They were frequently heard during 

 the first ten days of April but no more were seen until April 19, when in 

 crossing a weedy field I flushed a fine specimen and observed it sailing 

 about for some time. 



