348 LIFE HISTORIES OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



it must be considered as rather a rare visitor to our borders. Mr. Charles B. 

 Cory reports it as breeding on the Magdalene Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 and Mr. Thompson gives it as resident in Manitoba. 1 



In eastern North America it is possibly a very rare resident from latitude 

 46° N., and northward, becoming more abundant as higher latitudes are reached. 

 In the interior it is reported as common on the banks of the Saskatchewan, in 

 latitude 53°, and reaches thence northward at least to Fort Simpson on the 

 Mackenzie River, and its range is doubtless coextensive with the timber belt. 

 It appears to be very common about Great Slave Lake, specimens having been 

 received from all the different Hudson Bay Company posts located on its shores. 



Mr. R. MacFarlane states: "This Owl, or a bird closely answering to 

 the description, was repeatedly observed in the country between Fort Good 

 Hope and the Anderson River, Arctic America." 



Mr. Dall obtained a female specimen of this Owl at Nulato, Alaska, April 

 28, where it was not uncommon. It was often heard crying in the evenings 

 almost like a human being, and was quite fearless. It could be readily taken 

 in the hand without its making any attempt to fly away, but it had a habit 

 of biting viciously. According to the Indians it generally nests in holes in 

 dead trees, and lays six spherical white eggs. 2 



From the foregoing accounts it appears to have pretty much the same 

 habits as its near relative, Nyctale acadica. I have picked up one of these 

 birds while perched in a wild rose thicket near Camp Harney, Oregon. It 

 was fat and in a fine condition, and did not appear to see me approaching. 

 Several others were caught by some Of my men under similar circumstances, 

 and I can only attribute it to their poor eyesight during the daytime. From 

 its strictly nocturnal habits as well as its small size it is very apt to be 

 overlooked, even in localities where it may be rather common. It is a hardy 

 bird and well adapted to endure excessive cold. 



Nelson says of Richardson's Owl: "In one instance, while at the Yukon 

 mouth, I heard them uttering a peculiar grating cry on a cloudy morn- 

 ing, in the middle of May. A fur trader from Kotliok brought me a set of 

 four fresh eggs of tins bird, taken from a nest in a bush near the Yukon 

 mouth on the 1st of June. These eggs were white and round, as are most 

 Owls' eggs. The man who brought them unfortunately neglected to bring 

 the nest, but he told me that it was rather a small structure of twigs and 

 grass. It was probably a deserted nest of the common Rusty Blackbird or 

 of the Gray-cheeked Thrush, both of which nest commonly in that vicinity. 

 The eggs were found in the midst of a dense thicket. 



"Dall and others tell us that this bird generally nests in a hole in a tree, 

 but the lack of trees at the Yukon mouth and the presence of bushy thickets 

 may lead this bird to even build a nest for itself, and the fur trader insisted 

 that the eggs above mentioned were in a nest of the bird's own construction." 3 



1 Chamberlain's Canadian Birds, 1887, p. 61. 



2 History of North American Birds, 1*74, Vol. Ill, p. 42. 



3 Keport of Natural History Collections made in Alaska, 1887, No. 3, p. 151. 



