140 Notes on Land Birds. 



mice. I received anotlier specimen from Laprairie which was 

 shot in December. On 2'7th Febi'uary, about sunset, I saw one 

 sitting on the top of a tree in a small wood also near Mile-End 

 road, and was just about to fire at it, when a hare ran past me 

 which I shot. The report of the gun frightened the Owl and it 

 jflew away and I lost sight of it. Pi esently, however, seeing a large 

 flock of Crows pitched on some trees about half a mile off I went 

 towards them and found them mobbing the Owl which was sitting 

 motionless in the top of a very high tree. I fired at it, and 

 though apparently struck by the shot, it took no notice beyond 

 shaking itself and turning its head to look down at me. I then 

 gave it another shot and it fell half way down the tree, but 

 recovering itself flew away and disappeared behind some bushes. 



Although this bird has somewhat the appearance of a Hawk, 

 yet there is no Owl with which I am acquainted in which the 

 formation of the breast-bone and merry thought differs so much 

 from that which obtains amongst the Falconidee. The sternum is 

 very weak and the /crA;ec?-6oi'e, consists of two separate pieces, only 

 united at their apices by a slight cartilage, I am not aware that 

 this fact has been previously noticed by ornithologists, and I can 

 find no mention made of it in the works of Wilson, Audubon, 

 Richardson or Yarrel. 



Surma nyctea. Linn. Snowy Owl, I saw only one of this 

 Owl alive during the winter. On iVth January, one of the coldest 

 days of the season, I walked across the ice to Nun's Island, and 

 saw a Snowy Owl sitting on an isolated. branch of a tree, near the 

 farm yard attached to the Convent. It was so very shy I could 

 not get near it. I visited the island several times afterwards in 

 hopes of obtaining a fair shot at it, but was always unsuccessful, 

 and it disappeared when the mild weather set in about 6th 

 February. "When I reached the island it was invariably exactly 

 in the same spot, looking like a lump of snow in the tree, but 

 whenever I attempted to get within shot; it would fly off and 

 pitch on a fence, always shifting its place as I approached. The 

 whiteness of its plumage rendered it very difficult to be seen when 

 flying over the snow, and one day it flew pa^t me without my 

 seeing it till close to me, and was out of shot before I could draw 

 off my mit to pull the trigger. Once I tried the expedient of 

 putting a white shirt over my clothes, unfortunately, a friend with 

 me not made similarly invisible, frightened it off before I got 

 within shot. It probably subsisted on the rats in the farm yard^ 



