1924) Swarth: Birds and Mammals of the Skeena River Region 339

from nesting grounds at lower altitudes. Abundant in Kispiox Valley
and about Hazelton during the latter part of August, and in lessening
numbers in September. Some were seen up to the time of my
departure, September 26.

Fifteen specimens collected (nos. 42056-42070). Full-grown young
were taken July 18. An adult female taken August 20 has finished the
annual molt; an adult male taken on the same date, and another shot
September 7, are still in the midst of the change.

Pandion haliaétus carolinensis (Gmelin). Osprey

We found no ospreys breeding in the region covered, but about the
middle of August, with the coming of the salmon, the fish hawks began
to appear. During the latter part of August and throughout Septem-
ber, some were seen almost daily.

Bubo virginianus lagophonus (Oberholser). Ruddy Horned Owl

Exceedingly abundant throughout the lowlands. At our timber-
line camp on Nine-mile Mountain we neither saw nor heard horned
owls, but they were present everywhere in the valleys, and in unusual
numbers for a large, predatory bird. The abundance of rabbits in the
region may have caused a temporary inerease in the number of horned
owls.

Twenty-one specimens were collected (nos. 42071-42091). Of these,
six are young, mostly down-covered (two in one brood, June 5; four
in one brood, June 24); the rest are young and old in fresh fall
plumage. Food was found in eight stomachs. In one case a young
owl had been fed a red squirrel, the others contained rabbit and
nothing else. This is noteworthy in view of the general belief that
the horned owl is an inveterate enemy of grouse. These owls inhabited
the poplar woods, precisely the same environment as the ruffed grouse,
and ruffed grouse were abundant.

Considerable color variation is shown in this series of owls, gray
colored birds at one extreme, brown colored at the other. The grayest
bird (no. 42091) was the last one shot, on September 9, and might be
assumed to be a migrant of a race other than the breeding form, but
there are earlier taken specimens in the series that are nearly as light
colored. I think it safe to say that the differences illustrate the extent
of individual variation existent in the subspecies lagophonus in this
one region. (For use of the name lagophonus, see Oberholser, 1904,
p. 185; Ridgway, 1914, p. 747.)

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