SNOWY DAY-OWL. 413 



recollect a year or season, when attentively looking out for it, 

 and familiar as I am with its habits and favourite haunts, in 

 which I have failed to discover it. It is by no means shy, and 

 there is little difficulty in approaching it within near shot, until 

 it has been fired it, or otherwise alarmed. It is easily ren- 

 dered familiar, if I may judge by observations made on indi- 

 viduals wounded and kept confined ; and its disposition appears 

 gentle and intelligent. I should be apt to call it an amiable 

 owl. It is viewed as a bird of evil augury, and to this super- 

 stitious fear which it inspires it has no doubt often been in- 

 debted for its protection. 



" Whatever ornithologists may assert of its habits in America, 

 it does not prey by day in Shetland, nor, so far as I know, in 

 other parts of Europe where it is found. Perhaps the freer 

 republican institutions of the New World afford more scope 

 for its enlightened rapacious propensities than do the disciplined 

 habits, dull despotism, and dense population of the Old, and 

 thus transform the bird of Minerva into that of Jove, staring 

 even Phoebus out of countenance." 



The Snowy Owl occurs in the northern parts of the conti- 

 nent of Europe, whence it migrates southward at the approach 

 of winter. It is equally an inhabitant of North America, 

 where it appears to be more abundant ; and as its habits have 

 been observed there by Mr Audubon and Dr Richardson, it 

 may be proper to present an extract from the writings of each 

 of these celebrated naturalists. The former writes thus : — 



" The Snowy Owl hunts during the day, as well as in the 

 dusk. Its flight is firm and protracted, although smooth and 

 noiseless. It passes swiftly over its hunting ground, seizes its 

 prey by instantaneously falling on it, and generally devours it 

 on the spot. When the objects of its pursuit are on wing, such 

 as ducks, grouse, or pigeons, it gains upon them by urging its 

 speed, and strikes them somewhat in the manner of the Pere- 

 grine Falcon. It is fond of the neighbourhood of rivers and 

 small streams, having in their course cataracts or shallow rapids, 

 on the borders of which it seizes on fishes, in the manner of 

 our wild cat. It also watches the traps set for musk-rats, and 

 devours the animals caught in them. Its usual food while it 



