768 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Eaemeria « Zander, Naturg. Vog. Mecklenburgs, Heft 2, 1838, 123, 128. (Type, 



Strix nivea Thunberg=<S'. nyctea Linnaeus.) 

 Leuchybris & Sundevall, Met. Nat. Av. Disp. Tent., 1873, 105. (Type, Strix 



nyctea Linnaeus.) 



Very large, strongly built Bubonidae (wing about 394-465 mm.) 

 with minute or rudimentary ear-tufts ; '^ external ear-openings small, 

 simple, nonoperculate, symmetrical; very long, hair-like feathers on 

 lores and feet, nearly concealing bill and claws, and coloration white, 

 more or less barred or transversely spotted with dusky. 



Bill stout, nearly liidden by the long and dense antrorse bristle-hke 

 loral feathers; cere much shorter than chord of culmen. Nostril 

 rather large, broadly oval or nearly circular,'^ opening in anterior 

 edge of cere. External ear-openings relatively small (their greatest 

 vertical length less than diameter of eye), nearly oval, without free 

 dermal margin or median transverse hgamentous bridge. Wing large, 

 with longest primaries exceeding distal secondaries by less than one- 

 third the total length of wing; seventh and eighth, or seventh, eighth, 

 and ninth « primaries longest, the tenth (apparent outermost) about 

 equal to sixth; ^ five outer primaries with inner webs deeply emargi- 

 nated Gess distinctly on fifth). Tail more than haK as long as wing, 

 distinctly rounded, the longer under tail-coverts extending to its tip. 

 Tarsus longer than middle toe without claw, very densely covered, 

 all round, with long, soft, hair-hke feathers, the toes similarly 

 clothed, the long hair-like feathers nearly (sometimes quiue) con- 

 cealing the claws. Ear-tufts minute or rudimentary. Physiog- 

 nomy peculiar, through wide separation of the eyes and their narrow- 

 ness vertically, and but shghtly flattened face. 



Coloration. — 'Adults pure white, more or less barred or transversely 

 spotted ^vith dusky (some adult males almost immaculate) ; young 

 plain sooty. 



Range. — -Arctic and subarctic circumpolar districts, migrating 

 southward during severe ^\dnters. (Monotypic.) 



NYCTEA NYCTEA (Linnaeus.) 



SNOWY OWL. 



Adult male. — -Plumage pure white, sometimes nearly immaculate 

 but usually broken, more or less, with transverse spots or bars of clear 



o Aififipoc, bloody, murderous. (Richmond.) 



6 ''Asuxoc, albus, et i^pcc, nomen Bubonis antiquum." (Sundevall.) 



c These, however, are so small as to be discernible only on close examination. 



d In dried skins sometimes appearing oval or broadly elliptical and obliquely 

 vertical through shrinkage of the adjacent membrane. 



« Third and fourth, or second, third, and fourth, from outside, not counting the 

 rudimentary eleventh (first) primary. 



/ Fifth from outside. 



