OF NEW ENGLAND. 341 



opens and shuts tlicm, and listen to his hisses. Approach liim 

 wilh a light, see him contract the pupils of his eyes, and then, 

 £is 3'ou retreat, expand them until they seem like glowing orbs 

 of fire. Approacli him with food, and observe tlie eager fe- 

 rocit}- with which he swallows it, doing so at a single gulp when 

 possible. Approach him again, attempt to soothe him, and 

 you cannot hesitate to pronounce him an irreclaimable savage. 



(d). His cries are all unearthly. Sometimes he utters a 

 horrid scream, sometimes notes which suggest the strangula- 

 tion of some unhapp}' person in the woods, and at other times 

 his loud hooting, hoo-lwo-hoo-hoo. Being, it is said, attracted 

 by camp-fires, like other species, he often amuses the traveler 

 with these agreeable and soothing sounds. In short, no bird 

 has a character less pleasant to contemplate than the Great 

 Horned Owl. 



In the space left by a change in the text, it may not be 

 amiss to give an amusing instance of the fictions credited by 

 certain old writers. Charlevoix, says Wilson, wrote that cer- 

 tain owls caught mice for their winter's store, and, confining 

 them, fattened them on grain. 



VII. NYCTEA 



(A) NiVEA.- {American) Snowy Owl. 



(In Massachusetts, not uncommon in winter near the sea.) 



(fl). About two feet long. Snowy white; more or less 

 marked with brown or blackish. 



(6). The eggs are laid on the ground in Arctic countries. 

 They are white, and nearly or quite 2^ inches long. 



(c). The Snowy Owls, as their very thick and white plumage 

 suggests, are Arctic birds, thougli in winter they wander south- 

 ward in considerable numbers, being then more common in 

 Massachusetts than any other species of this family with so 

 high a range. It is said that, though rare in the interior, they 

 are of not unfrequent occurrence along the coast, since they 

 feed much upon fish, which they often catch for themselves. 



* The specific name has recently been established as scandiaca var. arciica. 



