( 1550.) 
HAWK OWL. 
STRIX FUNEREA, LINN. 
PLATE CCCLXXVIII. Mate ann Femate. 
Ir is always disagreeable to an author to come forward when he has 
little of importance to communicate to the reader, and on no occasion 
have I felt more keenly than on the present, when introducing to your 
notice an Owl, of which the habits, although unknown to me, must be 
highly interesting, as it seems to assimilate in some degree to the di- 
urnal birds of prey. I have never seen it alive, and therefore can only 
repeat what has been said by one who has. Dr Ricuarpson gives the 
following account of it in the Fauna Boreali-Americana :— 
** It is a common species throughout the Fur Countries from Hud- 
son’s Bay to the Pacific, and is more frequently killed than any other 
by the hunters, which may be partly attributed to its.boldness and its 
habit of fiying about by day. In the summer season it feeds princi- 
pally on mice and insects; but in the snow-clad regions which it fre- 
quents in the winter, neither of these are to be procured, and it then 
preys mostly on Ptarmigan. It is a constant attendant on the flocks 
of Ptarmigan in their spring migrations to the northward. It builds 
its nest on a tree, of sticks, grass, and feathers, and lays two white 
eggs. When the hunters are shooting Grouse, this bird is occasionally 
attracted by the report of the gun, and is often bold enough, on a bird 
being killed, to pounce down upon it, though it may be unable from its 
size to carry it off. It is also known to hover round the fires made by 
the natives at night.” 
I lately received a letter from my friend Dr THomas M. Brewer 
of Boston, Massachusetts, in which he informs me that ‘‘ the Hawk 
Owl is very common at Memphramagog Lake in Vermont, where as many 
as a dozen may be obtained by a good gunrer in the course of a single 
day. Its nests in the hollow trees are also frequently met with.” It 
8 surprising that none should have been seen by Mr Norraut or Dr 
TownsEnD, while crossing the Rocky Mountains, or on the Columbia 
River ; especially as it has been found by my friend Epwarn Harris, 
Esq. as far southward on our eastern coast as New Jersey. 
