CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 303 
owls October 18th, 1885, in woods at St. Martin Junction, and two 
others the next year in the same place ; in both cases they were 
mobbed by crows. Many specimens are taken in the vicinity. 
(Wintle.) Two individuals observed on Moose river, northern 
Ontario, June 2nd, 1896. None seen while crossing Ungava. 
(Spreadborough.) A rare resident in the Ottawa district. (Ottawa 
Naturalist, Vol. V.) This species is generally distributed through- 
out Ontario and is very variable in colour. (McIlwraith.) A 
common breeding species and a resident in the districts of Parry 
Sound and Muskoka; regular winter resident but rare in summer 
around Toronto, Ont.; also in Algonquin park, a few breed. (/. H. 
Fleming.) On the 29th March, 1897, I took one of these birds whose 
stomach contained the greater part of a crow, primaries and all. 
If this powerful rascal is in the habit of paying nocturnal visits to 
the roosting places of the crows in bad weather it is small wonder 
that the retaliative instinct asserts itself in daylight. (/. Hughes- 
Samuel.) Observed three young ones and an old one on the Missi- 
nabi river, June 20th, 1904. (Spreadborough.) Well distributed 
throughout the London district; breeding in large nests in the early 
spring. (W. E. Saunders.) The typical form occurs in British 
Columbia as well as every possible intergrade between the darkest 
saturatus and subarcticus, almost light enough for arcticus. (Brooks.) 
A discussion of the horned owls of Washington and British Columbia 
will be found in an article in The Auk, Vol. X., p. 18 (1893). It is 
probable that all the races of Bubo virginianus are to be found in 
British Columbia. (Rhoads.) 
BREEDING NoTES.—When we first came to Muskoka they were 
very rare, I only observed two in twenty years, but during that 
time the barred owl was very abundant. Since the horned owl 
has become common it has almost disappeared and now one sel- 
dom hears or sees one and the horned has become just as common 
as the barred used to be. This leads me to think that it has been 
killed or driven away by the other. The horned owl is not beneath 
killing a mouse if there is no larger game about but I think 
hares are its chief food during the winter. It kills a good many 
skunks in the summer. On one occasion my brothers found one 
that had seized a skunk which had bitten it so badly that it had 
died from the wounds. It kills muskrats in the fall when they are 
building their houses and when they are out upon the marshes 
