GREAT CINEREOUS OWL. 131 



Townsend, and several brought to London by the medical officer who 

 accompanied Captain Back in his late Arctic journey. Among the indivi- 

 duals which I have examined I have found considerable differences as to size 

 and markings, which may be attributed to age and sex. My drawing was 

 "taken from a remarkably fine specimen in the collection of the Zoological 

 Society of London. 



The comparatively small size of this bird's eyes renders it probable that it 

 hunts by day, and the remarkable smallness of its feet and claws induces me 

 to think that it does not prey on large animals. Dr. Richardson says that 

 "it is by no means a rare bird in the Fur Countries, being an inhabitant of 

 all the woody districts tying between Lake Superior and latitudes 67° or 6S°, 

 and between Hudson's Bay and the Pacific. It is common on the borders 

 of Great Bear Lake; and there, and in the higher parallels of latitude, it 

 must pursue its prey, during the summer months, by day-light. It keeps 

 however within the woods, and does not frequent the barren grounds, like 

 the Snowy Owl, nor is it so often met with in broad day light as the Hawk 

 Owl, but hunts principally when the sun is low; indeed, it is only at such 

 times, when the recesses of the woods are deeply shadowed, that the Ameri- 

 can hare and the murine animals, on which the Cinereous Owl chiefly preys, 

 come forth to feed. On the 23d of May I discovered a nest of this Owl, 

 built on the top of a lofty balsam poplar, of sticks, and lined with feathers. 

 It contained three young, which were covered with a whitish down. We 

 got them by felling the tree, which was remarkably thick; and whilst this 

 operation was going on, the two parent birds flew in circles round the objects 

 of their cares, keeping, however, so high in the air as to be out of gunshot; 

 they did not appear to be dazzled by the light. The young ones were kept 

 alive for two months, when they made their escape. They had the habit, 

 common also to other Owls, of throwing themselves back, and making a loud 

 snapping noise with their bills, when any one entered the room in which 

 they were kept." 



Great Grey or Cinereous Owl, Sirix cinerea, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 128. 

 Cinereous Owl, Strix cinerea, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 77. 

 Great Cinereous Owl, Strix cinerea, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 364. 



Upper parts greyish-brown, variegated with greyish-white in irregular 

 undulated markings; the feathers on the upper part of the head with two 

 transverse white spots on each web; the smaller wing-coverts of a darker 

 brown, and less mottled than the back; the outer scapulars with more white 

 on their outer webs; primaries blackish-brown toward the end, in the rest of 

 their extent marked with a few broad light-grey oblique bands, dotted and 



