HAWK OWL. 



65 



This species is very rare in Pennsylvania and the more 

 southern parts of the United States. Its favorite range seems to 

 be along the borders of the arctic regions, making occasional ex- 

 cursions southwardly when compelled by severity of weather and 

 consequent scarcity of food. I sometime ago received a drawing of 

 this bird from the District of Maine, where it was considered rare; 

 that, and the specimen from which the drawing in the plate was 

 taken, which was shot in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, are 

 the only two that have come under my notice. These having 

 luckily happened to be male and female, have enabled me to give 

 a description of both. Of their nest, or manner of breeding, we 

 have no account. 



The male of this species is fifteen inches long ; the bill orange 

 yellow, and almost hid among the feathers; plumage of the chin 

 curving up over the under mandible; eyes bright orange; head 

 small ; face narrow, and with very little concavity ; cheeks white ; 

 crown and hind head dusky black, thickly marked with round 

 spots of white; sides of the neck marked with a large curving 

 streak of brown black, with another a little behind it of a trian- 

 gular form; back, scapulars, rump and tail coverts brown olive, 

 thickly speckled with broad spots of white ; the tail extends three 

 inches beyond the tips of the wings, is of a brown olive color and 

 crossed with six or seven narrow bars of white, rounded at the 

 end, and also tipt with white ; the breast and chin is marked with 

 a large spot of brown olive ; upper part of the breast light, lower 

 and all the parts below elegantly barred with dark brown and 

 white; legs and feet covered to and beyond the claws with long 

 whitish plumage, slightly yellow, and barred with fine lines of 

 olive; claws horn color. The weight of this bird was twelve 

 ounces. 



The female is much darker above ; the quills are nearly black, 

 and the upper part of the breast is blotched with deep blackish 

 brown. 



VOL. VI. R 



