110 Mr. W. Thompson on the Migration of the Snowy OivL 



That the chief abode of the Snowy Owl is the regions within 

 the arctic circle, is well known, as it likewise is that numbers 

 migrate thence in winter to Canada and the United States. 

 Reference to the ' log' will show that, during the five days on 

 which these birds were successively observed, the vessel kept 

 nearly to the 54th degree of latitude, having sailed during the 

 time about 500 miles in an easterly direction ; consequently, 

 if the course of the Owls were to Canada or the States, the 

 vessel, which in such event might possibly " fall in with^^ 

 them a second time, was proceeding somewhat in an opposite 

 direction, but whither again it does not appear that they 

 would have been driven by storms. A greater number of 

 birds too being seen on the 18th than on the 16th favours the 

 idea of a continuous migration. 



The vessel was about 250 miles from the straits of Bellisle, 

 or the S.E. point of Labrador, when these Owls first appeared, 

 but sailing eastward, was on the day they were last seen about 

 740 miles distant from them and 480 miles from the southern 

 extremity of Greenland, which for some time was the nearest 

 land. 



I shall take this opportunity of again noticing the occurrence of 

 the Snowy Owl in Ireland. In the possession of Edward Waller, 

 Esq,, of Dublin, I lately saw a fine specimen, which was shot in the 

 winter, " about three years ago," near Oraagh in the county of 

 Tyrone. This individual may probably have migrated thither early 

 in the year 1835, when several others were obtained in different 

 parts of Ireland ; and at which period the species was first recorded as 

 visiting the country*. In a letter, dated Twizell House, July 21, 

 1838, I was informed by P. J. Selby, Esq., that he had received a 

 Snowy Owl from Killibegs, county of Donegal, near which place it 

 was shot in the month of November or December, 1837 t- This is 

 the same individual which appears from the ' First Annual Report of 

 the Natural History Society of Dublin, 'p. 6, to have been announced 

 at one of the meetings as an Eagle Owl {Bubo maximus) ; it is almost 

 unnecessary to add the fact, that the gentleman who made the an- 

 nouncement had not the opportunity of seeing the specimen, but 

 judged merely from the description communicated to him. 



* See * Magazine of Zoology and Botany', vol.ii, p. 179. 

 \ In the first vohime of the * Annals' (p. 241) a Snowy Owl is noticed 

 as having been killed near Belfast on the 2nd of December, 1837. 



