THE AECTIC HORNED OWL. 387 



Fort Custer, Montana, I received several Owls which approached this form, 

 being intermediate between it and the Western Horned Owl, but none were 

 perfect types of either. 



Mr. R. MacFarlane met with the Arctic Horned Owl in the country 

 between Fort Good Hope on the Lower Mackenzie and the Anderson River 

 region, within the Arctic circle, and in a collection of birds and eggs recently 

 received from him is a very light colored female of this race, a perfectly 

 typical specimen from Moose Lake, eastern Saskatchewan, shot, in May, 1890, 

 which probably marks nearly the southern limit of its breeding range. These 

 birds feed on the numerous waterfowl, Ptarmigan, and the Arctic hares inhab- 

 iting these regions, and are probably common enough in suitable localities, 

 where an abundance of food is easily obtainable. 



Nothing is as yet known about their mode of nesting or their eggs, which 

 are not likely to differ from those of the preceding races. 



136. Bubo virginianus saturatus Ridgway. 



DUSKY HORNED OWL. 



Bubo virginianus saturatus Ridgway, Ornithology of the 40th Par., 1877, 572, foot- 

 note. 

 (B 48, part; C 3176, R 405c, C 464, U 375c.) 



Geographical range: From Labrador and Hudson Bay; west through the inte- 

 rior to Alaska, and south probably through all the higher regions of the Rocky and 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains; south to Arizona (San Francisco Mountain). 



The range of the Dusky Horned Owl, the darkest colored of the different 

 races of the genus Bubo, has until recently been supposed to be confined to 

 the coast regions of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska Terri- 

 tory. As it is well known to occur also in Labrador — and, furthermore, to 

 breed there, showing that it is not an accidental straggler — it probably also 

 inhabits the wooded regions of the interior, covered with hardy spruce and 

 pine forests, which connect these widely separated points, and reach from the 

 North Atlantic Ocean nearly to Bering and the Arctic Sea. As yet, however, 

 no specimens of this race have been obtained from the interior of British North 

 America. This is not surprising when we consider the fact that this large bird 

 has until very recently been overlooked in regions far more accessible than 

 the so-called "fur countries." 



During a biological survey, conducted under the direction of Dr. C. Hart 

 Merriam, Chief of the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy, U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, made in August and September, 1889, and which resulted 

 in some extremely interesting discoveries, a specimen of this dark colored race 

 was shot on September 14, in the pine belt on San Francisco Mountain, central 

 Arizona. Another was seen at the same time, and they are reported as toler- 

 ably common in that vicinity. This extends the range of this race south to 

 latitude 35° N. 



