392 LIFE HISTOEIES OP NOETH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



138. Surnia ulula (Linn^us). 



HAWK OWL. 



Strix ulula Linn^us, Systema Nature, ed. 10, i, 1758, 93. 

 Surnia ulula Bonaparte, Catalogo Metodico degli Uccelli Europei, 1843, 23. 

 (B — C — R 407a, C 481, U 377.) 



Geographical range: Northern portions of eastern hemisphere, from Norway 

 to Kamchatka, and more northern Asiatic shores of Bering Sea (Plover Bay), acciden- 

 tal in western Alaska (St. Michael). 



The Hawk Owl, another Okl World species, likewise claims a place in our 

 avifauna on the strength of several specimens obtained in the vicinity of St. 

 Michael, Alaska, by the indefatigable Mr. L. M. Turner, while on duty there in 

 connection with the U. S. Signal Service during the years 1874 to 1881. 



It is slightly larger than the American Hawk Owl and readily recog- 

 nized by its much lighter coloration. It seems to be a stupid bird, at times 

 at least, as Mr. Turner caught one alive in his hands while it was sitting in 

 a clump of rank grass. He says: "The natives assert that it is a resident, 

 and breeds in the vicinity of St. Michael; also that it is a coast bird, i. e., 

 not going far into the interior, and that it can live a long time in winter 

 without food, as it remains for days in the protection of the holes about the 

 tangled roots of the willow and alder patches."^ 



Mr. Henry Seebohm, in speaking of this species, says: "It breeds through- 

 out the pine forests of Scandinavia and North Russia, occasionally reaching 

 as high as the birch region on the confines of the tundra. * * * The 

 principal food of the Hawk Owl is mice and lemmings; and the bird follows 

 the migratory parties of the last named little mammal to prey upon them. 

 From its indomitable spirit, however, few birds of the forest are safe from 

 its attacks. * * * 



"The breeding season of the Hawk Owl apparently commences in the 

 middle of April and lasts to the end of June. As this bird possesses the 

 habit, in common with many of its congeners, of laying their eggs at intervals 

 and sitting on them as soon as laid, they may be found as late as the third 

 week in June. It makes no nest, and the eggs are usually laid in the hole 

 of a decayed pine tree and rest on the powdered wood alone, as is the case 

 with those of the Woodpeckers. CoUett mentions a nest of this Owl in 

 Norway, on the top of a broken pine trunk, some 6 feet below which was 

 a Golden-eye Duck sitting on her nest. Wolley mentions a similar instance 

 in Lapland. This Owl will also frequently take possession of the nest boxes 

 placed by the peasants for Ducks and rear its young in them. The eggs of 

 the Hawk Owl are from five to eight in number, white in color, smooth, and 

 possess considerable gloss. They measure from 1.65 to 1.55 inches in length, 

 and from 1.25 to 1.17 inches in breadth [equal to about 41.9 to 39.4 in 

 length and 31.7 to 29.7 millimetres in breadth]. 



' Contributions to Natural History of Alaska, Turner, l88C, p. 1G4. 



