312 



" This bird is one of the comparatively few species of circumpolar distribution, American and European 

 representatives of which have not been lately held as distinct. True, it is afflicted with synonymy — as what 

 bird known to the last century is not ? but its names have generally, it would appear, been given rather in 

 ignorance, or in misconception of its original designation, than with the design of indicating a bird different 

 from Strix ulula. Wilson used a name of Gmelin's {hudsonica) which came nearly home to him; and the 

 name funerea, for many years current among American writers, obtained simply through wrong identification 

 of Linnseus's description (Fn. Suec. 22), which, you need not be told, has been often said to apply to the bird 

 afterwards called Strix tengmalmi by Gmelin. 



" I have handled specimens of the Hawk Owl from so many localities in British America, and our 

 accounts of the bird in that portion of North America are so unanimous, that it may fairly be said to inhabit 

 the whole of that country, and to reside permanently wherever it can find food the year around. We have no 

 evidence of any regular periodical migration, independent of necessity ; but there is no doubt of its being 

 forced in winter by scarcity of food, if not by cold, to retire, either wholly or in part, from regions where it 

 finds ample sustenance and where it breeds in summer. It is almost entirely due to this forced movement 

 that the bird occurs in the United States at all — the only known exception being its presence in Northern New 

 England in summer, as we shall see further on. I have been at some pains to gather the United- States quota- 

 tions of the species, and believe that I have them very nearly all ; so that its southward extension can be pretty 

 exactly determined. 



" In 1840 Dr. Brewer (12mo ed. Wilson, 686) gave the habitat of the species as ' to the north of 35°.' 

 You will be able to judge how nearly this hits the bird in Europe; for this country I should not like to set a 

 probable limit much if any further south, but, so far as I am actually informed, must place the southern 

 boundary at about 40° N. ■ Latitude so low as this even, however, is only exceptionally reached, and never, so 

 far as known, except in winter. It is singular that one of the very earliest American notices of the species 

 should mention a specimen from this extreme of its distribution, the original of Wilson's drawing (pi. 50. 

 fig. 6) and description (vi. p. 64) having been 'shot in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia' (about 40°). 

 Mr. Cassin quotes it (B. of Cal. & Tex. 191) from New Jersey, on Mr. Harris's authority. Mr. Lawrence 

 catalogues it (Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. viii. 281) as ' rare' near New York City. Dr. De Kay includes it in the 

 fauna of that State (Nat. Hist. N. Y. pi. ix. fig. 19). We learn of its occurrence in Ohio through Mr. J. M. 

 Wheaton, who includes it in his catalogue (Ohio Agric. Rep. 1860, no. 29), but without remark, and most 

 likely upon the excellent authority of Professor J. P. Kirtland, who accredited it to the northern portion of 

 the State in his Catalogue of 1838 (Second Ann. Rep. of the Geol. Surv. of Ohio). For its appearance in 

 Wisconsin we have the equally reliable authority of Dr. P. R. Hoy (Trans. Wise. Agric. Soc. 1852; Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1853) . Further westward, in the United States, we regret to say, the records are 

 silent, or at least have not brought the bird to my notice, after a pretty diligent search through the library 

 shelves. None of the many naturalists attached to the government explorations in the west appears to have 

 met with the Hawk Owl ; for it is not mentioned in any of their several reports ; while the specimens cited in 

 the great ornithological resume of their labours (Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence, B. of Am. 1858, p. 6i) are all 

 from British America. It is particularly surprising that neither Dr. Cooper nor Dr. Suckley found it in 

 Washington or Oregon Territory ; for we cannot doubt that in the west the bird comes down to the latitudes 

 it reaches along the Atlantic and in the interior States. Dr. Cooper does, indeed, present it in his late work 

 (Orn. of California, curante Baird, i. 448) with an excellent woodcut, but also with the remark that it ' has 

 not yet been found within the limits of California, but will doubtless be met with sooner or later.' This 

 surmise is perfectly pertinent. I have myself no doubt that the bird will be found wandering southward, 

 particularly along the mountains in winter, even to the confines of Arizona and New Mexico — that is, some- 

 where between the latitudes just now discussed with Dr. Brewer. 



" Turning back now, we will enter New England, the diligence of whose ornithological sons cannot have 

 failed to set down for us something interesting. Waiving the modesty that I ought to show, after this remark, 



