ete eeu Ue BeOCNe BU Tier be ais N ee 
Common Nighthawk Wood Thrush Eastern Wood Pewee 
Chimney Swift American Redstart 
Black & White Warbl 
Ruby-thr. Hummingbird Baltimore Oriole ne EE Ae he 
Barn Swallow Rose-breasted Grosbeak Yellow Warbler 
Purple Martin Eastern Kingbird Indigo Bunting 
What we require are individual reports from many cooperators in each 
town or county, not local compilations of many records. The more indi- 
vidual reports we get, the better (except two observers working together 
the same day should submit their report as one). Anyone who wishes to 
send in his reports or who desires literature and information about our 
program is asked to get in touch with the writer. 
2114. Van Hise Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 
ft ft f 
The Hawk-Owl Was a Hawk Owl 
By ISABEL B. WASSON 
ON THE AFTERNOON of April 28, 1953, it was drizzling steadily. I was 
driving the car alone from a plot where we were working to Parking Area 
10 in the climax forest at the east end of the Morton Arboretum, near 
Lisle, Illinois. Suddenly before me, on a low branch over the road, I saw 
a large brown bird the size of a long-eared owl. I stopped the car and 
looked him over carefully. His tail was longer than the long-eared owl’s, 
he was heavier and had no ear tufts. His head, back, wings and tail 
were a rich tobacco brown, with conspicuous white spots like polka dots 
across his shoulders. When he turned his head in silhouette, I could see 
his curved bill and rounded head, more like a hawk’s than an owl’s. He 
flew slowly one hundred feet down the road, swooping as he went, and 
alighted again low on a branch. The flight revealed narrow white bands 
across the tail. I crept forward in the car and stopped within 25 feet for 
another view. He flew on again and I followed. Finally he turned and 
flew into the thick woods. 
I hurried back to my friend, Marge Shawvan, who was working on 
the plot, and said: “I’ve seen a bird that I don’t know. It is a hawk-owl— 
he looks like a hawk but acts like an owl.’ We both set out again, and 
this time she saw him and we were able to see the black and white face 
pattern. For several days after that we went along the road hoping to 
see our strange bird, but never did. 
A week later I was talking to Amy Baldwin and described our bird. 
She said immediately, “Why, you saw a Hawk Owl.’ Somewhere back 
in my memory there came to me that a bird by that name actually existed. 
I turned to the excellent picture by Fuertes on Plate 47 of “Birds of 
Massachusetts,” and there was no doubt. I was interested in reading in 
Roberts’ “Birds of Minnesota” that: “The Hawk Owl is perhaps the most 
abundant bird of prey throughout the wooded part of northern Alaska.” 
606 Thatcher Ave., River Forest, IIl. 
