112 
HAWK OWL. 
SlJRNIA FUNEREA, Gmel. 
PLATE XXVII. 
It is always disagreeable to an author to come forward when he has little 
of importance to communicate to the reader, and on no occasion have I felt 
this more keenly than on the present, when introducing to your notice an 
Owl, of which the habits, although unknown to me, must be highly interest- 
ing, as it seems to assimilate in some degree to the diurnal birds of prey. 
I have never seen it alive, and therefore can only repeat what has been said 
by one who has. Dr. Richardson gives the following account of it in the 
Fauna Boreali-Americana : — 
“ It is a common species throughout the Fur Countries from Hudson’s 
Bay to the Pacific, and is more frequently killed than any other by the hunt- 
ers, which may partly be attributed to its boldness and its habit of flying 
about by day. In the summer season it feeds principally on mice and insects ; 
but in the snow-clad regions which it frequents in the winter, neither of 
these are to be procured, and it then preys mostly on Ptarmigan. It is a 
constant attendant on the flocks of Ptarmigan in their spring migrations to 
the northward. It builds its nest on a tree, of sticks, grass, and feathers, 
and lays two white eggs. When the hunters are shooting Grouse, this bird 
is occasionally attracted by the report of the gun, and is often bold enough, 
on a bird being killed, to pounce down upon it, though it may be unable 
from its size to carry it off. It is also known to hover round the fires made 
by the natives at night.” 
I lately received a letter from my friend Dr. Thomas M. Brewer, of 
Boston, Massachusetts, in which he informs me that “ the Hawk Owl is very 
common at Memphramagog Lake in Vermont, where as many as a dozen 
may be obtained by a good gunner in the course of a single day. Its nests 
in the hollow trees are also frequently met with.” It is surprising that none 
should have been seen by Mr. Nutt all or Mr. Townsend while crossing 
the Rocky Mountains, or on the Columbia river ; especially as it has been 
found by my friend Edward Harris, Esq. as far southward on our eastern 
coast as New Jersey. 
Hawk Owl, Strix hudsonica, Wils., vol. vi. p. 64. 
Strix funerea, Bonap. Syn., p. 35. 
