A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 3. Robert Ridgway
of the Northern Hemisphere, and is circumpolar. Though somewhat hawk-like in its appearance, it is nevertheless a true Owl, and possesses no affinities of structure with the Hawks, any more than other species of Strigidæ.
S. ulula. Above dark vandyke-brown, the head above dotted with white, and the scapulars spotted with the same. Beneath transversely barred with vandyke-brown and white, the bars regular, continuous, and sharply defined. Head and neck with two lateral, and one posterior medial, stripes of brownish-black, the space between them with white prevailing. Bill and iris yellow. Wing, about 9.00; tail, 6.80–7.00.
White spotting prevailing. Hab. Palæarctic Realm … var. ulula.31
Brown spotting prevailing. Hab. Nearctic Realm … var. hudsonia.
Strix freti hudsonis, Briss. Orn. I, 520, 1760. Strix hudsonia, Gmel. Syst. Nat. p. 295, 1789.—Wils. Am. Orn. pl. l, f. 6, 1808.—Shaw, Zoöl. VII, 274, 1809.—Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. I, 50. Surnia hudsonia, James. (Wils.) Am. Orn. I, 90, 1831. Surnia ulula, var. hudsonica, (Ridgway) Coues, Key, 1872, 205. Strix canadensis, Briss. Orn. I, 518, pl. xxxvii, f. 2, 1789.—Shaw, Zoöl. VII, 273, 1809. Strix funerea (not of Linnæus!), Rich. & Swains. F. B. A. II, 92, 1831.—Aud. Birds Am. pl. ccclxxviii, 1831; Orn. Biog. IV. 550.—Bonap. Ann. Lyc. N. York, II, 35.—Brewer (Wils.), Am. Orn. p. 686.—Thomps. Hist. Vermont, p. 64.—Peab. Birds Mass. III, 83. Surnia ulula (not ulula of Linn.!), Cass. Birds Calif. & Tex. p. 191, 1854.—Birds N. Am. 1858, 64.—Gray, Hand List, I, 39, 1869.—Blackist. Ibis, III, 320.—Lord, Pr. R. A. I. IV, iii (Brit. Columb.).—Kaup, Tr. Zoöl. Soc. IV, 1859, 214.—Dall & Bannister, Tr. Chicago Acad. I, ii, 274.—Maynard, Birds Eastern Mass., 1870, 133.
Sp. Char. Adult. Above rich dark vandyke-brown, darker anteriorly, less intense and more grayish on tail. A narrow streak of brownish-black originating over the middle of eye, and extending backward above the upper edge of the ear-coverts, where it forms an elbow passing downward in a broad stripe over the ends of the ear-coverts; confluent with this, at about the middle of the vertical stripe, is another of similar tint, which passes more broadly down the side of the nape; between the last stripes (those of opposite sides) is another or medial one of less pure black, extending from the occiput down the nape. Every feather of the forehead, crown, and occiput with a central ovate dot of white; those anterior more circular, on the occiput less numerous and more linear. Between the lateral and posterior nuchal stripes the white prevails, the brown forming irregular terminal and transverse or medial spots; these grow more linear toward the back. Interscapulars plain; posterior scapulars variegated with partially concealed large transverse spots of white, the lower feathers with nearly the whole outer webs white, their confluence causing a conspicuous elongated patch above the wing. Rump with sparse, irregular, but generally transverse, spots of white; upper tail-coverts with broader, more regular bars of the same, these about equal to the brown in width. Lower feathers of the middle and secondary wing-coverts each with an ovoid spot of white on the outer web; secondaries crossed by about three transverse series of longitudinally ovoid white spots (situated on the edge of the feather), and very narrowly tipped with the same; primary coverts with one or two less continuous transverse series of spots, these found only on the outer feathers; primaries with about seven transverse series of white spots, these obsolete except on the five outer feathers, on which those anterior to the emargination are most conspicuous; all the primaries are very narrowly bordered with white at the ends. Tail with seven or eight very narrow bands of white, those on the middle feathers purely so, becoming obsolete exteriorly; the last is terminal. Eyebrows, lores, and face grayish-white, the grayish appearance caused by the blackish shafts of the feathers; that of the face continues (contracting considerably) across the lower part of the throat, separating a large space of dark brown, which covers nearly the whole throat, from an indistinct collar of the same extending across the jugulum,—this collar uniting the lower ends of the auricular and cervical dusky bands, the space between which is nearly clear white. Ground-color of the lower parts white, but everywhere with numerous very regular transverse bars of deep brown, of a tint more reddish than the back, the brown bars rather more than half as wide as the white ones; across the upper part of the breast (beneath the dark gular collar) the white invades very much and reduces the brown, forming a broad lighter belt across the jugulum; below this the brown bars increase in width, their aggregation tending somewhat to a suffusion, giving the white jugular belt better definition. On the legs and toes the bars are narrower, more distant, and less regular.
The whole lining of the wing is barred just like the sides. The dark brown prevails on the under surface of the primaries, etc.; the former having transverse, irregular, elliptical spots of white, these touching neither the shaft nor the edge: on the longest quill are seven of these spots; on all they are anterior to the emargination.
♂ (49,808, Nulato, Alaska, April 21, 1867; W. H. Dall). Wing-formula, 3, 4–2–5–6–1. Wing, 9.00; tail, 7.00; culmen, .70; tarsus (of another specimen; wanting in the present), .90; middle toe, .82.
♀ (49,807, Nulato, April 20; W. H. Dall). Wing-formula, 3, 4–2–5–6–7=1. Wing, 9.00; tail, 6.80; culmen, .70; middle toe, .80.
Hab. Arctic America, south in winter into northern United States; Wisconsin (Dr. Hoy); Massachusetts (Dr. Brewer; Maynard); Dakota and Montana (Mus. S. I.).
The Hawk Owl of North America is to be distinguished from that of Europe and Siberia by the same characters which distinguish the American Sparrow Owl from the European, namely, much darker shade of the brown and its greater prevalence. Three perfect specimens of the Old World bird (a pair from Lapland, and a specimen from Kamtschatka, Petropawloosk, W. H. Dall) agree in prevalence of the white over the head above, the confluence of the spots on the scapulars forming a larger, more conspicuous patch, and very broad and almost immaculate jugular belt; the brown bars beneath are very much narrower than in the American bird, and the tint is not different from that of the back. The legs and toes are scarcely variegated. While acknowledging the identity of the two representative forms, the differences are such as to entitle them to separation as races.
Habits. The American form of the Hawk Owl inhabits the northern portions of both continents, and is common in the Arctic portions. On the Atlantic coast of this continent it has been found as far south as Philadelphia and the State of New Jersey, but its presence south of latitude 45° is probably only occasional and rather rare. The European form, according to Mr. Dresser, has not been known to exist in the British Islands, but several instances are quoted of the occurrence of the American form in Great Britain. One was taken off the coast of Cornwall in March, 1830; another was shot near Yatton, in Somersetshire, on a sunny afternoon in August, 1847; a third had previously been taken at Maryhill, near Glasgow, in December, 1863. On the Pacific coast it has not been taken farther south than Alaska, though it is quite probable it may yet be found to be an occasional visitant in Washington Territory and Oregon, and even the northern portions of California. It remains all the winter in high northern latitudes, and the instances of its having been taken even in Massachusetts, so far as is now known, are not many. Wilson only met with two specimens. Audubon and Nuttall never met with one of these birds alive.
Surnia ulula.
Mr. Downes states that the Hawk Owl is very abundant in Nova Scotia in the winter time in some years, but may not be seen again for four or five seasons. It is common in Newfoundland, where it breeds in the Caribou districts. Mr. Downes often kept living specimens in confinement, which had been taken on board the Cunard steamers off the coast.
Mr. Boardman gives this species as resident, though rare, in the neighborhood of Calais, being occasionally found there in the breeding-season. In Oxford County, Maine, Professor A. E. Verrill says it is a common autumnal and winter visitant, and that it is quite abundant from the first of November to the middle of March, but not found there in the summer. Mr. Allen has never met with it in Western Massachusetts. Near Boston, in some seasons, it is not uncommon, though never occurring with any frequency, and only singly. It is found throughout the State, and is probably