368 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 27. 



July 15. It was being vigorously assailed by barn swallows, Avhicli 

 were nesting on the precipitous sides of the island. 



In 1903 we saw several at Edmonton May 10, and while on our 

 way to Athabaska Landing May 11 to 15 noted a number nearly 

 every day. On their return tri]3 in the fall my brother and Gary 

 observed single birds near Athabaska Landing on September 2 and 

 20. During my trip northward from Fort Rae I saw one on Lake 

 Faber on August 7. On Great Bear Lake I saw one near McVicar 

 Bay September 9, and another 40 miles west of that jDlace Septem- 

 ber 12. 



In the spring of 1904 I first recorded the bird at Fort Simpson 

 April 28-, noting one. A pair, both of which had been eating meadow 

 voles {MicTotus drummondi) ^ were collected May 5. Another speci- 

 men was taken May 12, and one bird was seen May 14. At Willow 

 Eiver, near Fort Providence, J. W. Mills collected a male on May 1. 

 The series collected exhibits considerable variation in color. 



Richardson describes a female bird, which contained eggs nearly 

 ready for exclusion, killed at Fort Franklin May 20 [1826].« King 

 noted the species at Fort Reliance, at the eastern end of Great Slave 

 Lake, in the spring of 1835.^ Ross recorded it as common in the 

 Mackenzie River region, and as having been collected at Fort Simp- 

 son.^ MacFarlane found it fairly common in the Anderson River 

 region, in both the wooded country and Barren Grounds ; ^ Bendire 

 records eggs taken by MacFarlane near Fort Anderson June 30, 1865.^ 

 The bird catalogue of the National Museum shows that skins were 

 received from Fort Resolution, Fort Rae, Big Island, Fort Simpson, 

 and Lesser Slave Lake. J. Alden Loring took a specimen at Edmon- 

 ton September 18, 1894, this being the only one he noted there during 

 the last three weeks of September. 



Scotiaptex nebulosum (Forst.). Great Gray Owl. 



Though apparently quite generally distributed throughout the 

 wooded portions of the region, this species seems nowhere to be very 

 common and is seldom observed. 



One was seen by James MacKinlay near Liard River, to the south- 

 ward of Fort Simpson, about the middle of November, 1903, and 

 another by A. F. Camsell on the Liard-Mackenzie portage on Feb- 

 ruary 26, 1904. On April 22, 1904, a fine adult female was taken 

 in a steel trap which I had set on the summit of a pole. The species 

 was next met with a short distance below the mouth of the Nahanni 



"Fauna Boreali-Americana, II, pp. 75, 76, 1831. 

 ^ Narrative Journey to Arctic Ocean, II, p. 135, 1836. 

 «Nat. Hist. Rev., II (second ser.), p. 277, 1862. 

 <^ Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIY, p. 436, 1891. 

 ^Life Hist. N. A. Birds [I], p. 335, 1892. 



