* 
` 
* 
428 ZOOLOGY. 
adult renders the following record of recent instances of its capture 
in Canada of considerable interest. Mr. Ridgway, in a paper 
published in this journal in May, 1872, in noticing Mr. D. G. 
Elliott’s mistake of considering the W. albifrons to be the young 
of N. Tengmalmi, has carefully elaborated the evidence of its being 
the young of N. Acadica. This relationship had been previously 
suspected, and seems now to be fully confirmed. Mr. McIlwraith, 
under date of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Jan. 20, 1873, writes 
as follows: “On looking over the Narurauist of April, 1871, 
I observe a notice of the capture of a specimen of the white- 
fronted owl in Maine, and the writer of the note, Prof. A. E. 
Verrill, says that the only other instance of its occurrence in the 
United States of which he is aware, is the specimen taken by Dr. 
Hoy at Racine. Iam a little surprised at this, for, though not com- 
ing much in contact with collectors, I have seen or heard of this 
species now and then for a number of years back. My first knowl- 
edge of it was from Cassin’s account, and the figure given of it, 
in his Birds of America. Shortly afterwards I recognized it in a 
small case in the possession of the Rev. Professor Ingles, now of _ 
the Dutch Reformed Church, Brooklyn, New York, where it was . 
labelled ‘*Saw-whet-Youne.” The case was brought from Montreal. 
‘next met with it in Toronto, where Mr. Passmore, taxider- 
mist, had two specimens, one of which I obtained and have now 
in my collection. Again I heard from Mr. P. H. Gibbs, of Guelph, 
that there were several about his evergreens near the house, one of 
which he shot. About the same time Mr. Booth, a naturalist of | 
Drummondville, fold me of a specimen he had obtained. Dr. Ander- 
son, of Point Levi, opposite Quebec; had his alive for a time, and 
I heard of still another in the hands of R. K. Winslow, Esq., of 
Cleveland, Ohio. From the foregoing it would seem to be more 
common in Canada than itis farther south. The opinion seems 
to be generally held by those parties with whom I have conversed 
on the subject that it is the young of the saw-whet, and yet it is 
somewhat singular that it is not as often met with as its supposed 
. parents. In the month of October, a few years since, I had six 
in the saw-whet form brought me by a lad who got them all near 
the same place on his father’s farm; yet not one of the other was 
met with. The theory recently advanced by Mr, Elliott in the 
=, “Tbis,” of its being the young of the sparrow owl [Nyctale Teng- 
~ malmi] I do not think at all probable ; I have the two side by si¢e — 
ba 
