44 Bird-Life in Labrador. 



The Indians hunt the white owl when possible always with 

 two persons, each going in opposite directions, the one going 

 ahead and attracting his attention while the other crawls up to- 

 wards him. The owl appears to be unconscious that he is 

 watched by two individuals, and is thus shot without much 

 difficulty. They see easily in the daytime. They seem to 

 feed principally on mice, and I have often found skulls of the 

 same almost perfect in their balls or castings. I have heard 

 them hoot only when, being alarmed, they fly to some place 

 of supposed safety. I got very close to one one day when 

 without my gun, he seemed to be perfectly white. Many intel- 

 ligent persons with whom I conversed on the subject, and who 

 had shot a good many owls upon the coast, insisted that the 

 plumage of the white owl, in Labrador at least, was pure 

 white in Winter, the spots and speckles appearing in the 

 Spring, deepening in the Summer and Autumn, and that the 

 Fall moult leaves them white again. I sought answers to this 

 question of pure white plumage in several distinct localities 

 with always the same result, as above. The birds, they say, 

 are never shot in a white dress at any other time than in mid- 

 AV inter, the amount of white being a true mark of the season. 

 The flesh of the white owl, if the bird be not too old, is es- 

 teemed good eating by the people on the coast. I saw evi- 

 dences of newly-killed birds at several places that I visited, 

 in the shape of wings, feathers, etc., and when asked what be- 

 came of the bird the people would answer, " we eat it, sir ! " 

 At a distance, when perched upon some hilltop, one can- 

 hardly distinguish the white owl from a cap of snow. The 

 white owl, the great black-backed gull, and the raven have 

 probably been the targets for more charges, and extra large 

 charges at that, of powder and shot then anv other birds of 

 the fauna of Labrador that either myself or my friends tired 

 at while on the coast. 



MARSH HAWK 



Cii'CHK ('i}<tiicitx hiulBoniwt. (L.) SCIIL. 



MY notes on this species jjive the satisfactory record of 



