Another Record of the Great Gray Owl in California
Another Record of the Great Gray Owl in California.-In October, 1941, Mr. C. E. DeLong, then residing in San Diego, donated to the San Diego Society of Natural History a mounted specimen of a Great Gray Owl (Scotiaptex nebzclosa nebulosa), for which he was able to provide accurate data. He stated that it was taken between Coarsegold and Finegold, Madera County, California, on Denver Church’s Ranch, elevation about 3200 feet, in May or June of 1930. This locality is some twenty miles in an air line south of Yosemite National Park. The owl was shot by two boys because they thought it was after pigeons.
The mount had evidently been used as a mantel ornament and was darkened by smoke. However, it has been very satisfactorily cleaned and converted into a cabinet specimen which now bears the number 18526, S.D.S.N.H. In view of double handling and compression, the present over-all length is valueless, but other measurements are: wing, 440 mm.; tail, 250; tarsus, 68; middle toe, without claw, 31; culmen, 42.2. Sex, of course, is indeterminable; but there are no bare incubating patches.- CLINTON G. ABEOTT, San Diego Society of Natural History, Balboa Park, San Diego, California, October 17, 1942.
