38 PACIFIC COAvST AVIFAUNA [No. i. 



the nest was situated was over 150 yards back from the shore, the two parents act- 

 ed very soUcitously, circling about near the nest and whistling mournfully, until we 

 lost sight of them around the next bend in the river. At our winter quarters, 

 ospreys were seen or heard nearly every day up to the 20th of September, on 

 which date they were noted for the last time until the following spring. But not 

 until the 3rd of June did I see an osprey. Possibly the freshets and the consequent 

 difficulty of catching fish, accounted for their late arrival. In the delta in June, '99, 

 I again found the ospreys fairly common, and on the 20th I succeeded in obtaining 

 an adult male. I did not detect this species on the coast, though I saw individuals 

 in the Kowak delta within eight miles of Hotham Inlet. I have taken pains to 

 compare northern specimens of the osprey (Kowak delta, Yukon, Sitka), with 

 southern birds (Southern California, Florida and Atlantic States), with the result 

 that I find absolutely no appreciable difference. I had expected to find a parallel 

 case to those of the Bald Kagle and Raven, in which the northern birds are larger 

 with comparatively much larger bills. But the ospreys present not a trace of 

 similar geographic variation. However the osprey is much more migratory 

 throughout its American range than the eagle or raven, and according to a pos- 

 sible law, "birds vary geographically inversely as they are migratory." 



Asia accipitrinus. (Pall.). 

 Short-eared Owl. 



The Short-eared Owl was noted everywhere during the summer from the 

 vicinity of Cape Blossom up the Kowak. In the former locality this species 

 was quite numerous among the hills of the peninsula where meadow-mice were 

 remarkably abundant. Until the time we started up the Kowak, August 12, I 

 saw no young, but on July 30th I flushed an adult pair which undoubtedly had a 

 nest in the near neighborhood. One of these birds was very solicitous, hovering 

 high above me as long as I remained in the vicinitj^ poising against the wind, and 

 continually uttering a nasal "mew." The other owl flew back and forth several 

 hundred yards away, near the crest of a hill, occasionally answering the near bird 

 with a similar note. On the iSth of August, on our way up the Kowak, we had 

 landed to "wood up," when I happened to discover a young Short-eared Owl about 

 two-thirds grown sitting motionless on a log. Even when touched, it did not 

 change the direction of its stare, nor make the slightest movement. In the vicinity 

 of our winter camp on the Kowak this was the commonest owl. I flushed a family 

 of eight from a thicket at the edge of a marshy meadow on August 21st. The last 

 observed were two, shot on the 29th of August. The following spring the first 

 seen was a pair flying southward low over the tundra on May 14th. On the 27th 

 of May I observed a curious procedure, evidently a courting demonstration. A 

 pair of Short-eared Owls were seen flying slowly and erratically close together 

 high in mid-air; first one and then the other of the birds would clap their wings 

 together beneath their bodies, several times in rapid -succession, producing a 

 rattling noise. At the same time the bird would drop several feet, finally expand- 

 ing the wings and flying a few yards before repeating. Every few moments one 

 or the other of the birds would utter a " mew." 



