HAWK OWL. 273 



HAWK OWL. (Strix Hudsonia) 



PLATE L.— Fig. 6. 



Little Hawk Owl, Edw. 62.— Lath. i. 142, No. 29.— Phil. Trans. 61, 385.— Le 

 Chat-huant de Canada, Briss. i. 518. — Buff. i. 391. — Chouette a, longue queue 

 de Siberie, PI. enl. A&i.—Arct. Zool. p. 234, No. 123. — PeaZe's Museum, 

 No. 500. 



SURNIA FUNEREA. — Dumeril.* 



Strix (sub-genus Surnia) funerea, Bonap. Synop. p. 35. — Strix funerea, Temm. 

 Man. i. p. 86.— North. Zool, ii. p. 92. 



This is another inhabitant of both continents, a kind of equi- 

 vocal species, or rather a connecting link between the hawk 

 and owl tribes, resembling the latter in the feet, and in the 

 radiating feathers round the eye and bill ; but approaching 

 nearer to the former in the smallness of its head, narrowness of 

 its face, and in its length of tail. In short, it seems jusfsuch 

 a figure as one would expect to see generated between a hawk 

 and an owl of the same size, were it possible for them to 

 produce, and yet is as distinct, independent, and original a 

 species as any other. The figure on the plate is reduced to 

 one half the size of life. It has also another strong trait of 

 the hawk tribe, — in flying and preying by day, contrary to 

 the general habit of owls. It is characterised as a bold and 

 active species, following the fowler, and carrying off his game 

 as soon as it is shot. It is said to prey on partridges and 

 other birds ; and is very common at Hudson's Bay, where it is 

 called by the Indians coparacoch.f We are also informed 



* In this we have the true form of a diurnal owl. The head is com- 

 paratively small ; facial disk, imperfect ; the ears hardly larger than in 

 birds of prey, and not operculated ; the wings and tail more hawk- like, 

 the former, as Wilson observes, with the webs scarcely divided at the 

 tips. Flies by day, and, according to Dr Richardson, preys during 

 winter on ptarmigan, which it constantly attends in their spring mi- 

 grations northward, and is even so bold, on a bird being killed by the 

 hunters, as to pounce down upon it, though it may be unable, from its 

 size, to carry it off. — Ed. 



t Edwards. 

 VOL. II. S 



