BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 217 



fruit trees, skunks, more destructive to the poultry than the owls 

 are. mink, weasels, etc., which will more than balance the 

 account. Let the owls all live, and securely protect the poultry 

 from not only the owls, but the animals, too. The habits of 

 the species are too familiar to repeat them here, as the young 

 have been so frequently captured for pets and reared in cap- 

 tivity that little of interest can be readily added. But woe to 

 the unprotected poultry when one of these civilized marauders 

 assumes his liberty in a favorable hour. Neither Mr. Wash- 

 burn, nor any other observers have added anything to the 

 local history of this species. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Large and strongly organized; ear tufts large, erectile; bill 

 strong, fully curved; wing rather long, third quill usually 

 longest; tail short; legs and toes robust and densely covered 

 with short downy feathers; claws very strong, sharp, curved; 

 variable in plumage from nearly white to dark brown, 

 usually with the upper parts dark brown, every feather mot- 

 tled, and with regular transverse lines of pale ashy and red- 

 dish-fulvous, the latter being the color of all the plumage at 

 the base of the feathers; ear tufts dark brown, nearly black, 

 edged on their inner webs with dark fulvous; a black spot 

 above the eye; radiating feathers behind the eye varying in 

 color from nearly white to dark reddish-fulvous, usually the 

 latter; feathers of the facial disc tipped with black; throat and 

 neck before, white; breast with wide longitudinal stripes of 

 black; other under parts variegated with white and fulvous, 

 and every feather having transverse narrow lines of dark 

 brown; middle of the abdomen frequently, but not always, 

 white; legs and toes varying from white to dark fulvous, usually 

 pale fulvous, in most specimens unspotted, but frequently and 

 probably always in mature specimens, with transverse narrow 

 bars of dark brown; quills brown, with wide transverse bands 

 of cinereous, and usually tinged on the inner webs with pale 

 fulvous; tail the same, with the fulvous predominating on the 

 outer feathers; iris yellow; bill and claws bluish -black. 



Length (female), 21 to 25; wing, 14.50 to 16; tail, 10. 



Habitat, eastern North America. 



NYCTEA NYCTEA (L.). (376.) 

 SNOWY OWL. 



Although never an abundant, or even a common species, the 

 Snowy Owl was formally seen in the middle and southern sec- 

 tions of the State much more frequently than in late years. 

 Two different causes have doubtless contributed to this de- 

 crease. In the early settlement of the country they were left 



