CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 3II 



the large marshes as a temporary home when it comes to southern 

 Ontario, doubtless on account of their resemblance to the treeless 

 regions to which it is accustomed. (W. E. Saunders.) This beautiful 

 bird may be seen close to my house at Kew Beach, Toronto, almost 

 every day in the winter, but they are very wary. They perch on 

 the ice floes along the beach and keep out of gun range. My neigh- 

 bour, Mr. Harold Douglas, shot one November 28th, 1901. When 

 wounded they are very ferocious and a dog is afraid to attack them 

 as they throw themselves on their backs and strike out rapidly with 

 their sharp, strong claws, and woe to the dog that gets his face struck 

 by the claws of a wounded white owl. This bird breeds within the 

 Arctic Circle. (W. Raine.) In his paper on the snowy owl pub- 

 Ushed in The Auk, Vol. XIX., p. 271 et seq., Mr. Ruthven Deane 

 gives an account of the unusual abundance of this bird in Canada 

 during the 190 1-2 migration. 



A tolerably common winter resident in Manitoba. It arrives 

 early in autumn and leaves in April. {E. T. Seton.) Has become 

 very rare at Aweme, Man., in recent years, probably on account of 

 its being invariably shot when chance offers. (Criddle.) Abundant 

 from Norway House to Hudson bay in winter. (Dr. R. Bell.) One 

 seen April ist and the last on April 20th at Indian Head, Sask., in 

 1892. (Spreadborough.) A regular and in some seasons an ex- 

 ceptionally abundant winter resident throughout the wfest but not 

 known to have been noted during the breeding season. (Atkinson.) 

 This highly beautiful and powerful bird is common in the more 

 northern parts of America. It frequents in summer the most arctic 

 lands and hunts in the day as indeed it has to do. When I have 

 seen it on the Barren Grounds it was generally squatting on the earth, 

 and if put up it alighted after a short flight. It preys on lemmings, 

 hares and birds. It makes its nest on the ground and generally 

 lays four eggs. (Richardson.) North to Fort Norman ; rare. (Ross.) 

 This species is not plentiful in the Anderson country and we never 

 secured an egg. (Macfarlane.) Not unfrequently seen near the 

 entrance to the Fraser river. (Lord.) Resident in the northern 

 portions of the province; south during some winters only, to the 

 mouth of the Fraser and Vancouver island. (Fannin.) An ir- 

 regular migrant at Chilliwack, B.C.; occasionally seen in winter at 

 Lake Okanagan, B.C.; several mounted specimens were in the 

 Cariboo district. (Brooks.) Taken at Skidegate and ^fasset, Queen 



