CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 267 



Fort Franklin on the 20th May, contained several pretty large 

 eggs nearly ready for exclusion. {^Richardson!) North of Fort 

 Simpson on the Mackenzie ; common. (Ross.) This speci'es is a 

 regular and common migrant and summer resident at St. Michael 

 and is found as far north as Kotzebue Sound where skins were 

 procured in 1880. (Nelson.) This is the commonest bird of prey 

 in Alaska. It is to be found on all of the mainland and Aleutian 

 islands. {Turner.) Sumas and Chilliwack prairies. {Lord.) Found 

 only on the coast ; a male was taken at mid-day at New West- 

 minster. {Streator.) Abundant, both on the island and on the 

 mainland ; remains on the coast throughout the winter. {Fannin.^ 

 Abundant resident in the Lower Fraser valley, B.C.; rather com- 

 mon in the Okanagan district in winter ; occurs in the Cariboo 

 district in winter. {Brooks.) Vancouver and Lulu islands and 

 about the lakes of the interior. {Rhoads.) The short-eared owl 

 was noted everywhere during the summer from the vicinity of 

 Cape Blossom up to the Kowak, at Kotzebue Sound, Alaska. 

 {Grihnell.) A series of nine specimens from Point Barrow, 

 Alaska, collected in June, 1898, are considered a new race by 

 Mr. Witmer Stone in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., Vol. 41, 

 p. 478. 



Breeding Notes. — Not uncommon in the fall in eastern 

 Ontario. Onespecimen shot near Lansdowne, Ont., in 1891. Breeds 

 every year on the Magdalen Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence. This 

 bird forms a slight nest on the ground amongst Carex, sedge, etc., 

 sometimes among low bushy shrubs, and lays from five to nine 

 eggs in the month of June. I have a set of nine eggs taken June 

 14th, 1898, in the northernmost part of the islands, and have no 

 doubt a few pairs breed there every year. A nest containing 

 seven eggs was found in Cataraqui marsh near Kingston, Ont., on 

 May 23rd, 1902, by Mr. Ed. Beaupre, Kingston. It was in a wet 

 but grassy place. {Rev. C.J. Young.) 



Twelve nests of this species were found in various situations in 

 the " barrens " as well as in wooded tracts, but all were on the 

 ground, and mere depressions apparently scraped for the pur- 

 pose, and lined with dried grasses and withered leaves ; a few 

 feathers were noticed in about half of them, and they seemed to 

 have been plucked from her breast by the parent bird. She occa- 

 sionally sits very close on her nest. The number of eggs in a 

 nest varied between three and five, and but one contained as 

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