272 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



CXXXV. NYCTALA Brehm. 1828. 

 a*?!- Richardson's Owl. 



Nyctala tengmalmi richardsoni {BonAV.) Ridgw. I872. 



A possible resident of Newfoundland, but I have not seen it. 

 {Reeks.) Becoming very rare ; seen only in winter in Nova 

 Scotia. {Downs.) Very rare in Nova Scotia. Have seen only 

 four specimens. {Gilpin.) Occasionally met with at St. John's, 

 New Brunswick. {Chamberlain) One taken at Scotch Lake, 

 York Co., N.B., in winter. {W. H. Moore!) Taken at Beauport ; 

 winter resident in Quebec. {Diomie!) A scarce winter visitant 

 at Montreal. {Wintle.) This is a winter visitor at Ottawa, Ont., 

 and has been tak^n by Mr. G. R. White and seen by Mr. Lees. 

 {Ottawa Naturalist, Vol. v.) My specimens of this species were 

 shot at Toronto, Ont., and I have very few records of its occurence 

 in other parts of the province. {Mcllwraitk.) Occurs about 

 Toronto but is very rare. Mr. Hay has met with one or two in 

 the Parry Sound district. (/. M. Fleming.) Probably resident in 

 the wooded sections of Manitoba. A common winter visitor ; in 

 January, 1885, Mr. Hine of Winnipeg showed me several dozen 

 skins taken that fall near Winnipeg. {Thompson-Seton!) I cannot 

 state the range of this species but believe that it inhabits all the 

 wooded country from Great Slave Lake to the United States. 

 On the banks of the Saskatchewan it is so common that its voice 

 is heard almost every night by the traveller wherever he selects 

 his bivouac. {Richardson?) North to Fort Simpson on the Mac- 

 zenzie ; rather rare. {Ross.) This handsome little bird is com- 

 mon throiighout all northern Alaska, wherever trees or bushes 

 occur to afford it shelter. {Nelson.) This owl does not occur at 

 St. Michael, on the coast. It inhabits the wooded districts. 

 {Turner.) A rare winter visitant at Chilliwack, B.C. ; a consider- 

 able irruption of this owl occurred throughout the southern 

 interior during the winter of 1898-99 ; rare in the Okanagan dis- 

 trict in winter ; resident throughout the winter in the Cariboo 

 district, B.C. {Brooks.) 



Breeding Notes. — This small owl is occasionally met with in 

 eastern Ontario in the late fall. I have seen a specimen shot 

 near Kingston. It breeds not uncommonly on the Magdalen 

 Islands, usually selecting a hole that had been made by the 

 " flicker " in a dead spruce stub. I saw two sets of eggs, of four 



