Hume (Ibis, 1871, p. 410) lias lately received an example from
Murdan in the Indus valley; thus proving its southern range
in the Old World to be not much less extensive than it is
known to be in America, where Mr. Dresser records it, on
the late Dr. Heermann’s authority, as having occurred at
San Antonio in Texas (Ibis, 1865, p. 830). On the western
coast of North America, however, its distribution is more
limited, and though it occurs in Vancouver’s Island and
British Columbia, up to the present time Prof. Baird
says it has not been recognized in California. In its
migratory flights the Snowy Owl does not hesitate to betake
itself to the broad ocean: it has more than once been observed
in the Bermudas, and a very interesting account has
been given by Thompson of a flock which accompanied a
ship halfway across the Atlantic from the coast of Labrador
to the North of Ireland. This happened in November,
1838, and it is worthy of remark that not many days after
this event, the example, already mentioned as having
occurred in Devonshire, was picked up dead at St. John’s
Lake, near Devonport. Its skin is now in the collection of
Mr. W. S. Hore of that place.
The Snowy Owl bears confinement well, and in the
aviary of Mr. Edward Fountaine, -whose unrivalled success
in treating tame Owls has before been mentioned, the hen
bird of a pair laid a single egg in the summer of 1870,
and four eggs in that of 1871; but, though she sat on the
latter, no young were hatched.
I t was formerly supposed (as was also imagined to be the
case with the Greenland Falcon) that the first feathers of
the young Snowy Owl were dark in colour, and that the
birds became whiter as they grew older. A specimen of a
nestling in the British Museum negatives this supposition.
The Owlet, it is true, is originally covered with down of a
sooty-black colour, each tuft having a brownish-buff tip ;
but the first feathers assumed are indistinguishable from
those which the adult wears, being of brilliant white with
more or fewer black or very dark brown spots or bars. The
birds, however, vary very much, and in some the plumage
is almost free from dark markings. The variation, as in
the case of the Greenland Falcon, seems to be purely
individual, for specimens of either sex may be obtained
representing its extreme limits, while examples kept in
confinement exhibit no perceptible change consequent upon
age. The dark marks when present are situated towards
the end of the feather; and on the under surface are semi-
lunar in shape, while those on the back and wings are more
linear. The feathers forming the incomplete facial disk,
those of the upper part of the breast, and also the downy
feathers defending the legs and toes, are pure white ; the
beak and claws are black; both are partially hidden by
feathers, and the latter long, curved and very sharp. The
hides are bright orange-yellow. The whole length of the
Snowy Owl is from twenty-two to twenty-seven inches, the
difference depending on the sex: the females are much the
larger of the two.
The vignette below represents the crystalline lens and the
bony ring of the eye in this bird, which may be compared
with those of the Eagle before figured (page 19).
Prof. Nilsson has incontestably shewn that the Strix
scandiaca of Linnaeus, though originally figured and described
by error as a tufted Owl, was founded upon an
example of this species, and the trivial name of his S.
nyctea, which no one ever doubted to be the Snowy Owl,
having been used for the genus by Stephens, it thus seems
only proper to recur to the former as the distinctive appellation
of this bird.
von. I. c c
j*v -i, p■ >vf<f e• • p•
KPijfiH,.:
u
I ■ v.T.*: ,• <.’*a .r *4
I
iW?’* VY-:
'
I l i J ®- ,
i s l i
i.lv ; fv.
l i t
V