44 
first included amongst the accidental visitants to this country by the 
late Mr. Yarrell in the third edition of his ‘ British Birds,’ in which 
will be found the notice of a specimen shot in the neighbourhood of 
Leeds in 1852, of which a figure and description were given in 
the ‘ Naturalist’ for the same year (p. 169). Mr. Gurney informs 
me that some years back he purchased from the late Mr. Thurtell 
an adult specimen of this rare Owl, said to have been killed near 
Yarmouth, but till then supposed to be only a European Scops Owl. 
This bird was unfortunately destroyed after it came into Mr. Gur- 
ney’s possession.” 
Genus Nycrea. 
Of this form the single species known is exclusively an inhabitant 
of the high northern regions of both the Old and the New World. 
41 NXOTHA NIVEA (o/s) ogo ut ok elie eu MOL Pl exene neve 
Snowy Owt. 
I have always regarded this bird as an accidental visitor to 
England, Scotland, and Ireland; but Mr. J. H. Dunn informs me 
that forty-five years ago it bred every year on the hills about four 
miles from Stromness, and Mr. Robert Gray says it may almost be 
regarded as a regular spring visitant to the Hebrides. Its great size 
and powerful claws indicate that quadrupeds of considerable bulk 
are within the compass of its destructive powers; and hence the 
hare, the lemming, white grouse, and the ptarmigan have but little 
chance of escape when once enclosed within the grasp of its talons, 
Its proper home is the icebound regions of the north; in Lapland it 
follows the lemmings in their migration southwards. 
“So little has been published in England,” says Professor Newton, 
when exhibiting some rare eggs at a meeting of the Zoological So- 
ciety (Dec. 10, 1861), “ respecting the Snowy Owl’s manner of nidi- 
fication that I hold myself excused for presenting the information I 
have been able to collect on the subject... .. According to Herr 
Wallengren, Professor Lilljeborg, on June 3rd, 1843, found on the 
Dovrefjeld a nest of this bird containing seven eggs, placed on a little 
shelf on the top of a bare mountain far from the forest and easy of 
access. Professor Nilsson mentions, on the authority of Herr A. G, 
Nordvi, that the Lapps in East Finmark assert that the Snowy Owl 
lays from eight to ten eggs, in a little depression on the bare ground 
on the high mountains. These accounts were in every way corrobo- 
rated by the information obtained by Mr. John Wolley during his 
long sojourn in Lapland. He several times met with persons who 
had found nests of this Owl, and states that he was told the old birds 
sometimes attack persons that approach their nests. . . . They seem 
to breed commonly in the districts explored by him only when the 
lemmings are unusually abundant. From the 16th to the 24th of 
May is supposed to be the time when they usually breed; and in 
1860 a Lapp, who was unfortunately not one of his collectors, found 
a nest with six eggs, which, instead of preserving, he ate. 
