BIRDS OF NORTHERN CANADA 445 



greatly in shape, ranging from an ovate to either a shorf, 

 rounded, elliptical or elongate ovate. The ground colour is 

 usually a creamy white, and this is sometimes so evenly and 

 regularly overlaid with pigment as to give it a huffy or vina- 

 ceous appearance." 



Mr. W. Raine has a series of no less than two hundred 

 eggs of the osprey, and they are, he says, the most handsome 

 of all hawks' eggs. The Ottawa Museum collection of this 

 species comprises four skins, taken at Billing's Bridge, near 

 the Capital city, at Toronto and in British Columbia, and 

 a set of three eggs taken at Portland Lake near Halifax, N.S., 

 June 14th, 1895 ; also one taken by Mr. A. P. Low on the 

 upper Hamilton River, Ungava, Labrador, June 10th, 1894. 



367. Shoet-eaeed Owl — Asio accipUrinus (Pallas). 



Twelve nests of this owl were found in various situations 

 in the " Barrens," as well as in sparsely wooded tracts, but 

 all were on the ground and were depressions apparently 

 scraped out for the purpose, and they were lined with dried 

 grasses and withered leaves ; a few feathers were noticed in 

 about half of them, and these seemed to have been plucked 

 from her breast by the parent bird. She occasionally sits 

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

 between three and five ; only one of the foregoing contained 

 as many as seven. On 30th June, 1865, one of the species 

 was observed flying about a particular spot in the Barren 

 Grounds, and we concluded that its mate was not far off, a 

 suspicion confirmed by its uneasy excitement as soon as a 

 search was instituted. Myself and four of our. party were 

 thus fully engaged over an hour ere success rewarded our 

 efforts by the female gliding away from her nest, in the centre 

 of a small clump of dwarf willows one foot in height, just 

 as she was almost trodden upon. It was composed of with- 

 ered grasses and feathers, and contained five eggs. We must 

 have frequently approached it very closely in course of our 

 rather protracted investigation. This species appears to be 



