SNOWY OWL. 349 



sharp beyond the cere. The lower mandible has the 

 angle broad and rounded, the dorsal line convex, the 

 sides convex, the edges sharp and inflected, with a 

 shallow notch close to the truncato-rotundate tip. Each 

 of the toes has two distinct scutella at the end. The 

 claws are long, much curved, slender, and extremely 

 acute ; the first, which is the smallest, and the fourtli, 

 which is next in size, are rounded beneath, the se- 

 cond flattened, the third convex with an inner edge, 

 both much larger, and nearly equal. 



The feathers on the face are long and slender, with 

 disunited barbs, those at the base of the bill bristle- 

 tipped and elongated so as nearly to cover that or- 

 gan ; but the facial disks are incomplete, the part above 

 the eye being covered with shorter feathers nearly of 

 the same texture as those on the upper part of the 

 head, and the ruff extending only along a small por- 

 tion of their posterior margin. The feathers of the 

 upper parts in general are broad, rounded, and rather 

 compact, of the lower softer and more downy. The 

 wings are long and rounded ; the primary quills broad 

 and rounded, the first four deeply sinuate on the inner 

 web, the first with the tips of its outer barbs recurved 

 and free, the next three slightly cut out along the outer 

 web ; the third longest, the fourth a little shorter, the 

 second about five-twelfths of an inch shorter, the first 

 shorter than the fifth ; the secondary quills broad and 

 rounded. The tail is of moderate length, exceeding 

 the wings by about an inch and a half, rounded, of 

 twelve broad, rounded feathers. 



The bill is black ; the iris pure gamboge yellow ; the 

 claws black. The general colour of the plumage is 



