49 
Interior of British North America. 
me of, and at once adopted, a ruse de guerre , and by making a 
considerable circuit I entered the clump on the far side. It 
happened to be only thick in places, and the deciduous trees 
being at that season, of course, devoid of leaves, I walked tole¬ 
rably easily, keeping a good look-out. I had a pointer-dog 
with me, which I allowed to beat the ground, thinking perhaps 
he might attract the attention of the Owl from me ; and I was 
already so angry with the length of the chase that I determined 
to blaze even if he rose a hundred yards from me. But to the 
point at once : as I steadily made my way through the little 
wood, up started friend “ Arcticus,'' as unexpectedly as a snipe, 
among the tops of the small aspens. My gun rose to my shoulder 
as quickly as if I had been on a bog in the “ auld country,” and 
down dropped the quarry to a touch of No. 3 shot at thirty-two 
yards. I need hardly say how delighted I was as I trudged 
homeward to the fort, with a fine but very light-coloured spe¬ 
cimen of the Great Horned Owl tied by my pocket-handkerchief 
to the barrel of the gun over my shoulder. On a post-mortem 
examination made at the inquest, the doctors agreed (for once) 
as to the cause of death : but a jury of very eminent men divided 
as to the identity of the deceased; for friends on two sides ap¬ 
peared, the one party claiming him as a true Bubo virginianus , 
while others contend (for the contest is not yet ended) that his 
Christian name should be “ Arcticus.'' The case has been referred 
to the Chancery Court, whence it is hoped that the ward will 
some day be extricated. The final decision will be of im¬ 
portance to the progress of ornithology, as it will define the 
limit to which we may go in varieties—local, accidental, or, if we 
may so term them, permanent. In the meantime I shall assume 
that the Great Homed Owls of North America are all B. virgini¬ 
anus. a Am I right—or any other man ? " The Great Horned 
Owl appears to be a common inhabitant of the interior of North 
America, from Hudson's Bay to the Bocky Mountains, and north 
to the Arctic Circle—in fact, the whole of North America. 
Otus wilsonianus. 
The Long-eared Owl, an inhabitant of the whole of temperate 
North America, is given in the f Fauna Bor.-Am.' up to 60° N. 
latitude, while a specimen has been supplied to the Smithsonian 
VOL. v. 
E 
