132 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



He says (under date Dec. 3rd) : — " Since September^ and 

 before I reached home from Europe^ we have been having a 

 most wonderful flight of Snowy Owls {Nyctea nivea). How 

 far west it has extended I have not yet heard ; but from New 

 Brunswick on the east to western New York State the whole 

 tract has been covered by the extraordinary prevalence of 

 these Owls. 



' They come not single spies but in battalions ! ' 



Mr. Boardman, Avriting to me from St. Stephen^s, New Bruns- 

 wick^ says, 'We have had a wonderful flight of Snowy Owls. 

 They were in flocks of fifteens and twenties moving southwards. 

 I never before heard of so many. Most of those seen along 

 the coast seemed to be following the migratory birds. Some 

 were here early in September and in very mild weather. They 

 were easily captured.'' The same peculiarities were observed 

 here. The Owls swarmed everywhere, and were obtained in 

 large numbers, so that our taxidermists could not prepare all 

 that were brought to them. At Hingham, on the coast, 

 quite a number were killed and brought to my nephew. In 

 Utica, New York, one was ignominiously knocked on the 

 head by an old woman with a broomstick, the bird having 

 been caught robbing her hen-roost. •'"' 



The same phenomenon, we may add, has also manifested 

 itself in the eastern hemisphere. Three examples of the 

 Snowy Owl, one of which was captured in Ireland, are now 

 iu the Zoological Society's Gardens. Mr. Cross, the well- 

 known dealer at Liverpool, says he never had so many of this 

 bird. Every steamer from America brings in two or three, 

 so that at one time he had nearly thirty in his possession. 



