190S.] 



BIKDS. 



369 



during my trip down the Mackenzie. While passing an extensive 

 ' brule * on the left bank during the afternoon of June 6 I noticed a 

 large nest on a tree about a hundred yards up the side of the valley 

 from the river. On a nearer apjoroach a large gray head became vis- 

 ible over the edge of the nest, and I realized that I had discovered 

 a nest of the great gray owl. Making a landing, I made my way 

 through the tangled mass of fallen timber to the base of the tree and 

 by a few raps with the ax induced the sitting bird to leave the nest. 

 She darted with a rapid swooping flight toward the nearest woods, 

 but as I desired her for a specimen, I shot her before she gained its 

 shelter. The nest was about 50 feet up in a large dead and leaning 

 spruce ; and as I did not dare to climb it, I felled the tree to secure the 

 young birds which I felt sure the nest contained. They proved to 

 be two in number, evidently 2 or 3 weeks old, and were clothed with 

 grayish down. In the nest were the partially eaten remains of three 

 young rabbits about the size of red squirrels. The nest was a plat- 

 form of sticks, nearly flat and practically without lining, and meas- 

 ured about 2 feet in diameter. Both this bird and the P^ort Simpson 

 specimen had deep straw-colored irises. A roughly mounted specimen 

 was obtained from Pere Ducot, of Fort Good Hope, later in the 

 season. Two eggs collected by Baptiste Bouvier from a nest in a 

 tamarack near Fort Providence in April measure 59 by 49 and 57.8 by 

 4:7 A mm. The set contained three eggs, one of which Avas broken. 

 J. ^y. Mills collected an adult at Willow River, near Fort Providence, 

 May 20, 1904. 



Eichardson first recorded the species, stating that it was common 

 on the shores of Great Bear Lake, giving a description of a specimen 

 killed there [probably at Fort Franklin], and mentioning a nest 

 found May 23, evidently near the same locality.^ King noted the 

 species at Fort Resolution in May, 1835.^ In the Anderson River 

 country MacFarlane found but one nest during several seasons spent 

 there. This was found July 19, 1862, near Lockhart River, on the 

 route between Fort Anderson and Fort Good Hope.^ Baird, Brewer, 

 and Ridgway record specimens from Fort Resolution, Big Island, 

 and La Pierre House ; ^ and the bird catalogue in the National Mu- 

 seum shows that skins were received also from Fort Rae, Peel River, 

 and Lockhart River. Russell records one taken at Fort Rae May 4, 

 1894.^ Macoun, on the authority of Raine, records eggs ta.ken by Dippie 

 in the Red Deer River district. Alberta, in the spring of 1896, and states 



« Fauna- Boreali-Americana, II, pp. 77, 78, 1831. 



* Narrative .Journey to Arctic Ocean, II, p. 196, 1836. 



^ Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIV, p. 4.36, 1891. 



^ Hist. N. A. Birds, Land Birds, III, p 33, 1874. 



^ Expl. in Far North, p. 262, 1898. 



44131— No. 27—08 24 



