CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 2"]"] 



while crossing Ungava. {Spreadborough.) A rare resident in the 

 Ottawa district. [Ottawa Naturalist,'Wo\.V) This species is gener- 

 ally distributed throughout Ontario and is very variable in colour. 

 {Mcllwraith.) A common breeding species and a resident in the 

 districts of Parry Sound and Muskoka ; common around Toronto, 

 Ont. ; also in Algonquin Park, a few breed. {J. H. Fleming!) 

 On the 2gth March, 1897, I took one of these birds whose 

 stomach contained the greater part of a crow, primaries and all. 

 If this powerful rascal is in the habit of paying nocturnal visits to 

 the roosting places of the crows in bad weather it is small 

 wonder that the retaliative instinct asserts itself in daylight. [J. 

 Hughes-Samuel^ Well distributed throughout the London dis- 

 trict; breeding in large nests in the early spring. (yV. E.Saunders ^ 

 The typical form occurs in British Columbia as well as 'every 

 possible intergrade between the darkest saturatus and subarcticus, 

 almost light enough for arcticus. [Brooks^ A discussion of the 

 horned owls of Washington and British Columbia will be found 

 in an article in The Auk, Vol. X., p. 18 (1893). It is probable that 

 all the races of Bubo virgitdanus are to be found in British Colum- 

 bia. {Rhoads.) 



Breeding Notes. — When we first came to Muskoka they were 

 very rare, I only observed two in twenty years, but during that 

 time the barred owl was very abundant. Since the horned owl 

 has become common it has almost disappeared and now one sel- 

 dom hears or sees one and the horned has become just as common 

 as the barred used to be. This leads me to think that it has been 

 killed or driven away by the other. The horned owl is not 

 beneath killing a mouse if there is no larger game about but I 

 think hares are its chief food during the winter. It kills a good 

 many skunks in the summer. On one occasion my brothers found 

 one that had seized a skunk which had bitten it so badly that it 

 had died from the wounds. It kills muskrats in the fall when 

 they are building their houses and when they are out upon the 

 marshes getting grass to build with. One night two winters ago 

 one came into a barn-yard and killed two geese. The farmer 

 caught it in a trap a few nights after. These owls are usually 

 found along the rivers and streams in thick woods. The western 

 form in Manitoba and the northwest is usually found in willow 

 thickets along the banks of streams and the edges of sloughs. 

 I have seen them time and again fly from a log or a stone, up 



