112 



HAWK OWL. 



-f SlTRNIA FUNEREA, Gmel. 



PLATE XXVII. 



It is always disagreeable to an author to come forward when he has little 

 of importance to communicate to the reader, and on no occasion have I felt 

 this more keenly than on the present, when introducing to your notice an 

 Owl, of which the habits, although unknown to me, must be highly interest- 

 ing, as it seems to assimilate in some degree to the diurnal birds of prey. I 

 have never seen it alive, and therefore can only repeat what has been said 

 by one who has. Dr. Richardson gives the following account of it in the 

 Fauna Boreali-Americana: — 



"It is a common species throughout the Fur Countries from Hudson's Bay 

 to the Pacific, and is more frequently killed than any other by the hunters, 

 which may be partly attributed to its boldness and its habit of flying about 

 by day. In the summer season it feeds principally on mice and insects; but 

 in the snow-clad regions which it frequents in the winter, neither of these 

 are to be procured, and it then preys mostly on Ptarmigan. It is a constant 

 attendant on the flocks of Ptarmigan in their spring migrations to the north- 

 ward. It builds its nest on a tree, of sticks, grass, and feathers, and lays two 

 white eggs. When the hunters are shooting Grous, this bird is occasionally 

 attracted by the report of the gun, and is often bold enough, on a bird being- 

 killed, to pounce down upon it, though it may be unable from its size to 

 carry it off. It is also known to hover round the fires made by the natives 

 at night." 



I lately received a letter from my friend Dr. Thomas M. Brewer, of 

 Boston, Massachusetts, in which he informs me that "the Hawk Owl is very 

 common at Memphramagog Lake in Vermont, where as many as a dozen 

 may be obtained by a good gunner in the course of a single day. Its nests 

 in the hollow trees are also frequently met with." It is surprising that none 

 should have been seen by Mr. Xuttall or Mr. Townsend while crossing 

 the Rocky Mountains, or on the Columbia River; especially as it has been 

 found by my friend Edward Harris, Esq. as far southward on our eastern 

 coast as New Jersey. 



Hawk Owl, Stn'.r hudsonica, Wils., vol. vi. p. 61. 

 Strix funerea, Bonap. Syn., p. 35. 



