ARCTIC OR WHITE HORNED OWL. 561 



ARCTIC OR WHITE HORNED OWL. 



(Strix scandiaca, Linn. S. (Bubo) arctica, Swains, and Richards. 

 North. Zool. ii. p. 86. pi. 32. Striz maxima, capite aurito, corpore 

 niveo, or Great Horned White Owl, Bartram's Travels, p. 289.) 



Sp. Charact — White tinged with brown, varied with blackish- 

 brown bars and lines : beneath brilliant v/hite, slenderly waved on 

 the throat, breast and flanks : egrets long, composed of 6 or 7 

 feathers. 



Of this very rare and beautiful bird only one specimen 

 was obtained by Dr. Richardson and the Expedition to 

 which he was attached. This was seen flying at mid-day 

 in the immediate vicinity of Carlton House, and was 

 brought down with an arrow by an Indian boy. 



Imperfect and short as may be the description of this 

 bird given by liinnfEus, there can be no reasonable doubt 

 but that it is the present rare and Arctic bird. Three years 

 ago, an individual of the same species was observed in this 

 vicinity, also prowling about by day, and remained, in the 

 neighborhood for two or three days. 



The length 23^ inches, according to Richardson. The tail 8^. 

 Of the bill from above, 1 inch 9 lines. The tarsus 2 inches 3 lines. 

 The face white, bounded behind by blackish-brown, succeeded by 

 white, which two latter colors are continued in a mixed band across 

 the throat. The egrets colored at the base like the adjoining plu- 

 mage, the longer feathers tipped with blackish-brown, their inner 

 webs white, varied with wood-brown. Above slenderly waved with 

 dark umber-brown, and white ; the white tinged with pale brown on 

 the greater wing coverts, some of the scapulars, and particularly on 

 the neck and lesser wing coverts. The quills wood-brown, white 

 along a great portion of their inner webs, and crossed by from 5 to 6 

 umber-brown bars on both webs, and the intervals speckled with the 

 same. Tail feathers white, deeply tinged on their inner webs with 

 wood-brown, and crossed by 6 bars of dark-brown, about half as 

 broad as the intervening spaces : their tips are white. — Chin white. 

 The throat crossed by a dark band, behind which there is a large 

 space of pure white, bounded again below on the breast by blotches 



