SriUGID^E: OTHER OWLS. 



639 



occupied artificial retreats set up for its accommodation, like the Purple Martin ; the eggs are 

 3-6 or 7 in number, white, subglobular, about 1.18 X 1.00; the largest ones about equal those 

 of the preceding species in length, but are both relatively and absolutely narrower. They are 

 laid mostly in April, but from late in March to early in June. 



NYC'TEA. (Gr. i/uKTeur, wwAiiCMS, Lat. wi/cfeMS, nocturnal.) Snow Owls. Much the same 

 generic characters as Bubo, but plumicorns rudimentary, generally considered wanting; facial 

 disc quite incomplete, eyes not centric to it ; bill nearly buried in frontal feathers ; feet densely 

 clothed in long shaggy feathers which even hide claws ; 4 outer quills emarginate on inner 

 webs; under tail-coverts reaching end of tail, which is rounded, and rather more than \ as long 

 as wiui?. One circumpolar species of great size, and mostly white color; young covered with 

 sooty down ; nest on ground ; eggs many. 



N. uyc'tea. (Fig. 437.) Great White Owl. Snowy Owl. Ermine Owl. Wapa- 

 CUTHU. Harfang. Pure wliite, spotted and barred with brownish-black markings, wholly 

 indeterminate in size and number; 

 but entirely white specimens are 

 very rare. There is often more 

 blackish th;in white ; in darkest 

 birds, the markings tend to bar 

 the plumage with rovrs of spots, 

 such pattern specially evident on 

 wings and tail. A common aver- 

 age plumage is spotted over all 

 upper parts, broken-barred on 

 quills and tail-feathers, regularly 

 barred on under parts, with wliite 

 face and paws. The face, throat, 

 and feet are usually whitest. Bill 

 and claws black ; iris yellow. 

 ^ nearly or about two feet long ; 

 extent 4.50-5.00 feet ; wing IG.OO- 

 18.00 inches; tail 9.00-10.00; cul- 

 men 1 .00 without cere ; tarsus 2.00 : 

 middle toe without claw 1.25. 9 

 larger, often over two feet long ; 

 wing up to 19.00, etc. She is 

 also as a rule darker colored than 

 he is ; our very large heavily 

 blackened specimens are mostly 

 of the "'fair" sex. This remark- 

 able Owl, conspicuous in size and color, abounds in boreal regions of both Iiemisphores, far 

 within tlie Arctic Circle, as near tlie North Pole even as any explorers have gone. It is 

 capable of eniiuring the rigors of six month.*;' niiihts under polar stars, and only comes south- 

 ward irregularly in winter, sometimes raiding in large numbers. "With us, it is of every 

 winter occurrence in the Northern and Middle States, sometimes pushing its way even to 

 the Carolinas and Texas ; there being no part of the U. S. where it may not appear at that 

 season. It is far from being exclusively nocturnal, but hunts abroad in the daytime as 

 readily as any Ilawk, with eyes undimmed by the ghire of the sun from boundless slieets ttf 

 snow, so dazzling and painful to human vision. It jireys upon hares, spermopliiles and smaller 

 mammals, especially lemmings and voles, wiiich swarm in the sphagnum »{ hyj)erboroan tun- 

 dras or barren grounds, upnu Ptannii,Mn, Uiicks and smaller birds, .nnl often proves it.^elf as 



Fio. 437. — Siiowv Owl. 



