November 29. 
Hawk Owl at Middleboro, 
, 
O.&o. 3311. Dec. 1888 p /f/ 
The Hawk Owl in Eastern Massachusetts. — Mr. Brewster’s interesting 
article on Surnia funerea in the last number of ‘The Auk’ (Jan., 1885, 
p. 108) reminds me that I have in my notebook a record of an example 
which I have neglected to make public. This, perhaps, should be done, 
as it antedates, so far as I can learn, all previous records, when the year 
is certainly given, for Massachusetts. 
The Hawk Owl is mentioned in Mr. Peabody’s ‘Report’ of 1839, but 
merely in a general way — “seldom wanders into New England.” It does 
not appear in Mr. Allen’s ‘List’ of 1864, but is given in his ‘List’ of 1878, 
as ‘very rare.’ Mr. Babcock’s specimen, noted in the ‘American Natural- 
ist,’ 1869, was taken, as Mr. Babcock informs me, in 1862 or 1863. 
In January, i860, a neighbor called with the request that I would come 
and see a strange Owl he had just shot, and, being merely wing-tipped, 
had put in a cage with the view of making a pet of him. I found it to be 
of this species. His wing healed, and he became fairly tame, and on 
occasional visits I found he bore confinement well, and his good appetite 
made a constant demand on his keeper. This state of things continued 
more than a year; but in the spring of 1861, being exposed one night to 
a sudden fierce and cold storm, which beat into his cage on account of a 
change of wind, he was found the next morning dead under the perch. 
He was brought to me according to request, but his plumage, of course 
already injured by confinement, was in such a deplorable condition, from 
the soaking and filth at the bottom of the cage, that my courage was not 
equal to the occasion, and I reluctantly threw him away. — F. C. Browne, 
Framingham, Mass. Auk, 2, April, 1886. p« 3.3.0- 
A Hawk Owl ( Surnia ulula caparocii) at Chatham, Mass. — I am in- 
formed by Mr. Augustus W. Baker, of Chatham, Mass., that a Hawk Owl 
was shot at Chatham during the winter of i 883-’S4- The specimen was not 
preserved, nor can the exact date be given, but Mr. Baker’s intelligent and 
very accurate description of the bird, which he carefully examined, ren- 
ders the record otherwise satisfactory and notin the least open to doubt. 
— J. A. Allen, American Museum of Natural History, Nero York City. 
Auk, 2, Oct., 1886. p. 
Notes on Birds of Winchendon, Mass. 
William Brow e’er. 
Surnia ulula caparoch. — In the winter of 1886-87 Mr. Bailey shot three 
specimens, in that of 1887-1888 one. He thinks they occur regularly 
every winter. 
Auk, V, Oct,, 1888. p. 390 
.A Patera Mass, M.A,P'razar T _ 
We also have the note of a hawk owl taken at Sand- 
wich, Mass., on March 25 last. 
For, & Stria, April 24 , 1890 . p .208 
