78 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



the dark -brown color varies much in different specimens ; frequently both upper and 

 under parts are very distincth' banded transversely, and sometimes this color pre- 

 dominates on the back; plumage of the legs and toes pure snowy-white; bill and 

 claws horn-color ; irides 3'^ellow. 



Total length, female, about twenty-six inches; wing, seventeen to nineteen; 

 tail, ten inches. Male, about twenty-two inches ; wing, seventeen ; tail, nine inches. 



As a winter visitor, throughout all New England, this bird 

 is a rather coramon species. It is often taken on the islands 

 in Massachusetts Bay, where it feeds on fish tliat have been 

 thrown up on the shore by the tide, birds, wounded sea- 

 fowl, and even dead animals, as I am informed by a reliable 

 person who once shot one while perched on and eating 

 a dead horse on the beach. The flight of this Owl is rapid 

 and protracted. I have seen an individual chase and cap- 

 ture a Snow Bunting (P. nivalis') from a flock; and once 

 saw one make a swoop at a flock of poultry which had come 

 out from their house on a fine day, but which immediately 

 retreated on the appearance of tlieir enemy. The Snowy 

 Owl hunts both in the daylight and twilight: he seems to 

 prefer cloudy, gloomy days to bright ones, and is most 

 active just before a storm. Audubon says that this Owl 

 captures living fish in the water by standing quietly by the 

 margin, and seizing its prey with its claws, as it appears 

 near the surface : wlietlier this is a regular habit or not, I 

 cannot say. I never saw one do so; and I have conversed 

 with several hunters who have shot numbers of specimens, 

 and they all were ignorant of such a fact. 



Of the breeding habits of this Owl, we are ignorant. 

 The Hudson's Bay, and other northern countries, are its 

 summer homes. Wheelwright, in his " Spring and Sum- 

 mer in Lapland," gives the only description of its nest and 

 eggs accessible to me at present. He says : — 



" The egg of the Snowy Owl measures 2^ inches in length, and 

 If inches in breadth : its color is pure-white. The nest is nothing 

 more than a large boll of reindeer moss, placed on the ledge of a 

 bare fell. The old birds guard it most jealously ; in fact, the Lap- 

 landers often kill them with a stick when they are robbing the 



