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.