108 



THE OOi.OGJST. ^(7) 



Sharp-shinned Hawk still I can't quite 

 agree with Mr. Rawson as to their 

 showing the most variation. For a dis- 

 play of variation from plain white to 

 beauties in umber, chestnut and lilac, 

 from speckled to streaked and blotched, 

 from pointed oval to globular in shape 

 give me a full series of Ferruginous 

 Rough-legs. Editor. 



The American Barn Owl in Orleans 

 County. 



After an absence of two vears from 

 the old home scenes among which I 

 was born, passed my boyhood, and con- 

 tinued to reside until the fall of 1901, 

 I stepped down from the train in my 

 old home town of Medina on the morn- 

 ing of June 20th, last. 



Among the former friends and ac- 

 quaintances of mine who were about 

 the station platform coming and going 

 on different errands was Mr. Henry 

 Freeman, who was just taking that train 

 for Rochester, conveying with him to 

 a taxidermist th i re, a specimen alive 

 of a peculiar bird which up until that 

 time he had been unable to correctly 

 name, nor had he been able to find any 

 one in town who had seen such a bird 

 before. 



My arrival at that moment seemed 

 timely, for otherwise I might have 

 missed seeing the bird all together, as 

 my stay in Medina will be brief. 



Mr. Freeman was pleased to have the 

 birds' identity established and to learn 

 that he had secured one of the rarest 

 birds that ever visits Western New 

 York, for it was nothing less than an 

 Amercian Barn Owl (Strix pratincola) 

 which he had captured alive in his barn 

 on his farm about four miles south- 

 west of Medina. 



At the time I removed from Medina 

 to Vincennes, Ind., in the autumn of 

 1901, I had in course of preparation and 

 not far from completion, a proposed 

 work on the birds of Orleans county ; 

 which on account of my removal to the 

 VVest, was never finished. 



In consequence of having such a work 

 in preparation. I had made a most thor- 

 ough study up until that time, not only 

 of the ornithology of this county, but 

 of Western New York generally, and 

 knew precisely the status of each spec- 

 ies occurring, and had a record of all 

 rare bird occurrences for Western New 

 York. In the four years that I have 

 lived in the West, I have still kept my 

 self posted on the new things and rare 

 occurrences in bird life of this section. 

 1 am therefore able to state regarding 

 this occurrence of the American Barn 

 Owl at Medina, that it is the first and 

 only record for Orleans county. In Ni- 

 agara county, Mr. J. L. Davison of 

 Lockport has a specimen which was tak- 

 en at LaSalle. 

 In Erie county, Dr. W. H. Bergtold's 

 "List of the Birds of Buffalo and Vi- 

 cinity," published in 1889 mentions 

 this species as a rare straggler, on the 

 authority of Otto Besser. 



in Yates county, Gne was taken by 

 Mr. John B. Gilbert near Penn Yan, 

 prior to 1879. 



If there are other records of the oc- 

 currence of this owl in Western New 

 York, they have escaped my notice and 

 I shall be interested to hear of some 

 through the columns of the "Oologist. " 

 CORNELIUS F. POSSON. 



Medina, N. Y., June 21, 1905. 



A Freak Crow. 



In the Oologist for March, 1904, a 

 Michigan correspondent recorded the 

 capture of a freak Crow, whose bill 

 was abnormally developed, viz : to quote 

 his own words "the upper mandible 

 being 1 1-2 inches and the lower mandi- 

 ble 3 inches in length. Compare this 

 abnormal shaped bill with a normal siz- 

 ed one, which is two inches in 

 length, and the differences in the length 

 of the mandibles will be readily seen. 

 I have a somewhat similar freak to 

 record. 



