370 



NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO 27. 



Oil the same authorit}'^ that it breeds at the mouth of the Mackenzie." 

 In the smmner of 1896 J. Alden Loring found a dead one in the 

 Blueberry Hills, about 100 miles in a direct line west of Edmonton. 

 May 29, and saw one at TTliitemud Lake, about 35 miles farther west, 

 on June 6. He killed another on Stony Eiyer, about 25 miles north 

 of Jasper House. August 25. On October 20 he shot another at 

 Henry House. The day being cloudy, the bird was hunting by day- 

 light and was easily approached. Its stomach contained a number 

 of shrews. 



MacFarlane, in a manuscript list, records a nest containing two 

 fresh eggs, taken, together with one of the parent birds, near Fort 

 Chipewyan on April 20. 1880. 



Glaux funerea richardsoni (Bonap.). Eichardson Owl. 



This fine owl is quite generally distributed throughout the wooded 

 portion of the region in summer, but retires in winter from about the 

 northern half of this area. It is usually rather rare and is seldom 

 obseryed, though it is to a considerable extent diurnal in habits. 



A pair of these owls was seen in heaws^ mixed woods beside the 

 Athabaska, 75 miles below Fort McMurray, on the eyening of May 15. 

 1901. I was attracted to them by their notes, which suggested those 

 of the saw-whet owl, but were more yaried. I obtained seyerai 

 glimpses of the birds as they darted back and forth among the sum- 

 mits of the lofty spruces, in the deej) twilight, but was u.nable to ob- 

 tain one. The species was next met with at our camp on Slave Eiyer, 

 10 miles below the Peace, June 7, when a nest containing three nearly 

 fledofed youno- was discovered. It was in a deserted hole of a flicker, 

 about 20 feet from the ground in a large balsam poplar stub, in deep 

 woods. The 3^oung were collected, ^^'either of the old birds was 

 seen about the nest, but during the night the female was taken in a 

 trap placed on a pole near by for that purpose. The stomachs of the 

 young birds contained the remains of white-footed mice {Peromyscus 

 arct'icus)^ meadow voles {Microtiis drummondi) , and reel-backed voles [ 

 {Evotomys g. athabascce) , and a matted layer an inch and a half in 

 thickness, composed of the bones and hair of these species, filled the 

 bottom of the cavity. Two of the young are males, the other, so 

 much larger that it must have been older than the rest of the brood, 

 is a female. They vary but little in coloration, being dark brown 

 above, and without spots, excepting a few on the wings and tail; 

 sides of head dusk}^ brown; white on face confined to the region 

 about gape and to a few feathers on forehead; breast and belly 

 brown, mixed with dull white posteriorly. At our camp 25 miles 

 below the mouth of the Peace, on June 12. my brother shot an adult 



° Cat. Canadian Birds, Part II, p. 271, 1903. 



