446 THROUGH THE MACKEN"2lE BASIF 



fairly common and very widely distributed over the northern 

 states of the Union, throughout the Dominion of Canada 

 to the Polar Ocean, and also in Alaska to Point Barrow. 

 Mr. Paine says that he has three sets of its eggs that were 

 taken at Shoalwater Bay and Mackenzie River Bay, Arctic 

 America. One set of five was found June 6th, 1898 ; another 

 set of four June 4th, 1890 ; and another set of five June 7th, 

 1898, so that the first week in June appears to be the time 

 this bird has fresh eggs in that remote locality. The Eskimo 

 name for this owl is " JSTipaiclooktik." According to Major 

 Bendire, its food consists almost exclusively of small rodents, 

 mice, lemmings and gophers, as well as grasshoppers, insects 

 of various kinds, and occasionally a small bird. Like the 

 barn and long-eared owls and several of the hawks, it deserves 

 and should receive the fullest protection, being far more 

 beneficial than otherwise. Incubation probably lasts about 

 three weeks, and ordinarily but one brood is raised. The 

 eggs are usually from four to seven in number. They are 

 white in colour, vsdth a very faint creamy tint perceptible in 

 most of the specimens ; the shell is smooth, finely granulated 

 and not as lustrous as are the eggs of the preceding long- 

 eared species. In shape they vary from oval to elliptical 

 ovate, and a few are nearly equally pointed at each end. 



The Canadian National Museum contains six bird speci- 

 mens, one of them purchased with the Holman lot in 1885, 

 one from Quebec, one from Ontario, and the other three (one 

 each) from Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia; 

 also one set of five eggs taken at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, 

 May 2i8th, 1894, by Mr. W. Raine. l^est on ground, a 

 hollow lined with grass and weeds, built on a rising ground 

 overlooking the slough. Mr. Ross says this owl is common 

 in the Mackenzie River district to Fort Simpson, while the 

 long-eared species is rare, and both are "winterers." 



370. Geeat Geet Owl — Scotiaptex cinerea (Gmelin). 



I should not say that this owl was in " great abundance " 

 in the Anderson region, as inadvertently stated on page 33 



