1908.] 



BIRDS. 



367 



were still there. In 1896 he saw one on Miette Eiver, near Henry 

 House, July 23. 



Asio wilsonianus (Less.). Long-eared Owl. 



On May 10, 1901:, I secured a male in a thicket of mixed woods at 

 Fort Simpson. The species was unknown to the inhabitants and is 

 undoubtedly rare so far north. The stomach contents of my speci- 

 men comprised seven individuals of Microtus drummondi (two adults 

 and five naked young) , and one red-backed vole {E votomys dawsoni). 



Sharpe records a specimen taken by Eoss at Fort Simpson ; ^ it 

 is probably the same one previously recorded from that place by 

 Eoss, who gives the species as rare.^ An egg taken at Fort Simpson 

 by Eoss on May 1 (year not stated) is in the British Museum.^ Mac- 

 Farlane, in a manuscript list, states that two eggs, together with the 

 female parent, were taken by an Indian at Fort Providence April 

 14, 1885. The specimens were identified by J. J. Dalgleish. An- 

 other female was obtained at Fond du Lac, Athabaska Lake, the 

 same season. These seem to be the only previous instances of the 

 capture of the species in the Mackenzie Valley. 



Macoun states that Spreadborough found it not uncommon in the 

 woods about Edmonton in May, 1897, and that he took a set of eggs 

 there on May lo.'^ J. Alden Loring took one and saw another at 

 Edmonton September 11, 1894. 



Asio flammeus (Pontoppidan). Short-eared Owl.*' 



This cosmopolitan species occurs in summer throughout the Atha- 

 baska-Mackenzie region north to the Arctic coast, and breeds in suit- 

 able places over this area. 



Several individuals were seen on the road north of Edmonton on 

 the afternoon of April 30, 1901. They were usually flying in pairs, 

 ;»nd the males frequently SAvooped down toward their mates from 

 a considerable height, holding their wings high above the back and 

 littering peculiar quavering cries. The species was next noted on 

 the Quatre Fourches marsh, near Fort Chipewyan, May 24, when 

 a single bird was observed. Another was seen on a semibarren 

 island near the mouth of the Northern Arm of Great Slave Lake 



« Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., II, p. 230, 1875. 



^Xat. Hist. Rev., II (second ser.), p. 277, 1862. 



^ Gates, Cat. Birds' Eggs Brit. Mus., II, p. 319, 1902. 



^ Cat. Canadian Birds, Part II, pp. 264, 265, 1903. 



^Ross lists (Canadian Nat. and GeoL, VI, p. 442, 1861) one specimen of 

 ^Scops asio as having been taken at Fort Simpson. In his subsequent more 

 extended article (Ibid., YII, pp. 137-155, 1862) he does not mention Scops asio, 

 but adds to his first list two species of small owls, one of which probably he 

 had previously incorrectly identified as a screech owl. 



