Hawk Owls in New England.—Although the months of October and
November, 1884, do not seem to have been characterized by any special
meteorological phenomena, they will be long remembered by ornitholo-
gists and collectors throughout Northern New England from the fact that
they brought to this region a flight of Hawk Owls altogether unparalleled
in any previous year of which we have definite records. This inroad
seems to have begun late in October and to have lasted nearly through
November. It apparently extended over most of Northern Maine and
New Hampshire, but I have no evidence that it reached Massachusetts.
Some idea of the abundance of the birds may be had from the fact (for
which I am indebted to Mr. Manly Hardy) that a single taxidermist in
Bangor, Maine (Mr. Bowler), received no less than twenty-eight freshly-
killed specimens in the course of a few weeks. Most of our Boston taxi-
dermists also had from three to six each (all from Northern Maine or
New Hampshire), and at Lake Umbagog, Oxford County, Maine, I se-
cured four, shot respectively Oct. 25, Oct. 31, Nov. 15, Nov. 16.
These figures doubtless represent but a small proportion of the total
number killed, for in the region over which the birds spread few persons
are aware that an Owl has any commercial value, although every one
shoots the despised bird at sight. Thus for every one preserved a dozen
were probably thrown away. As instancing this, I quote the following
from a short note in ‘Forest and Stream’,* signed Ned Norton, and dated
at Colebrooke, N. H., Dec. 1 :—“Hawk Owls came three weeks ago in
greater numbers than ever seen before. Farmers’ sons have been killing
them all over the country.”
The account of this species in ‘New England Bird Life’ (Part II, p. 96)
would lead one to infer that while “a rare and irregular winter visitor to
Massachusetts,” it is of regular and rather common occurrence through-
out Northern New England. This is certainly a mistake, as every col-
lector who has any practical knowledge of our fauna knows. Indeed the
bird is ordinarily one of the very rarest of our Owls—so rare, in fact, that
during an experience of some twenty years previous to 1884 I had never
seen either a living or freshly-killed specimen.
In respect to the remarkable migration just described, it may be well to
add that all the specimens which I have examined belong to the American
form, Surnia funerea (L.) Rich. & Sw.—WILLIAM BREWSTER, Cam-
bridge, Mass.
Auk, 2, Jan., 1886. p. 108-109.
Surnia u.caparoch.
* Vol. XXIII, No. 19, Dec. 4, 1884, p. 368.