C. If. Merriam JBirds of Connecticut. 73 



leave, and before my arrival all was quiet. This was a mystery to 

 me, for I had not seen the Owl fly, and if he had, the crows would 

 certainly have given the alarm and followed him, yet no Owl was in 

 sight. Having passed the tree some fifteen or twenty rods I heard a 

 noise, and turning about saw the Owl coming out of a hollow apple- 

 tree stump close by the tree. This was rather provoking, for I had 

 been, just a moment before, near enough to the stump to have 

 touched it with my gun."* 



About the middle of March, 1863, "four large Arctic Owls were 

 shot during one week, at Nahant, and on the beaches" about Boston. f 



152. Sumia Ulllla, var. Hudsonia (Gmelin) Cones. Hawk Owl. 



A rare winter visitor from the North. To Dr. F. W. Hall belongs 

 the honor of adding this species to the birds of our State. In Nov. 

 1869, he saw the bird in an elm tree in an open field. Not having a 

 gun with him he returned for it and secured a fine specimen of the 

 Hawk Owl. It was mounted by the Rev. C. M. Jones, and is now in 

 the cabinet of Dr. Hall. In the vicinity of Hudson's Bay, during the 

 winter season, the white Ptarmigan (Lagopus albus) constitutes its 

 chief article of diet ; and it is said to follow the hunter, pouncing 

 upon his game before he has time to reach it. As early as 1833 the 

 Hawk Owl was recorded, by Ebenezer Emmons, M.D., as a rare 

 " autumn" visitant in Massachusetts. J It has been shot as far South 

 as Haddington, near Philadelphia. 



153. Nyctale Tengmalmi, var. Richardson! (Bonaparte) Ridgway. 



Richardson Owl. 



An extremely rare accidental winter visitor from the North. Dr. 

 Wm. Wood has a fine specimen of this boreal Owl in his cabinet. It 

 was captured some twenty years ago, in mid-winter, near East 

 Windsor, Conn. The doctor gives the following account of the 

 manner in which he came in possession of this specimen, in one of his 

 interesting articles published in the " Hartford Times," Aug. 24th, 

 1861: "Visiting a patient some three miles from my office, I was 



* Hartford Times, chap, xvi, July 6, 1861. 



f History of Lynn, Mass., by Alonzo Lewis and James R. Newhall, p. 473, 1865. 



\ Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology of Massachusetts. By 

 Edward Hitchcock, Amherst. p. 546. 1833. 



Birds of East Pennsylvania and New Jersey. By William P. Turnbull, M.D., p. 

 41. 1869. 



TRANS. CONN. ACAD., VOL. IV. 10 JULY, 1877. 



