146 
SNOWY OWL. 
Stria’ nycétea, Montasu. Brwick. 
Surnia nyctea, SELBY. GouuD. 
Noctua nyctea, JENYNS. 
Strir—Some species of Owl. Nyctea—An. adjective 
from MWiz—Snow. 
THE Snowy Owl may derive its name either from the snow- 
white colour of its plumage when fully adult, or from the 
snow-covered regions which are its natural residence. 
It inhabits the arctic parts of Hurope, Asia, and America; 
from these is sometimes advances more or less far towards 
the south, but the farther the seldcmer. In Europe it occurs 
in abundance in Kamtschatka and Siberia; in considerable 
numbers in Russia, Lapland, Norway, and Sweden; as also in 
Iceland and Greenland; occasionally in Prussia, Poland, 
Germany, and’ Switzerland; and once appeared in Holland, in 
the winter of 1802. 
This splendid Owl has been one of the ‘oldest inhabitants’ 
of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and specimens have 
been procured there; but like that well-known character it 
is now fast becoming apochryphal. Beauty in Owls, as well 
as in human beings is a dangerous possession, and often 
entails damage and destruction. One was killed on the Isle 
of Unst, in ‘the month of August or sau. 1812: old 
birds anil young together, have been regularly seen in that 
island, and also on Yell, in which they have been accustomed 
to breed. One in Orkne , which had been driven there in 
a storm from the north-west, ab the end of Mareh, in 1835. 
In Yorkshire one was shot near Selby, on the 13th. of Feb- 
ruary, 1837; and another was seen in company with it at 
the same time. Ancther was shot at Elsdon, in Northumber- 
land, in December, 1822; and two near Rothbury, in the 
same county, at the end of January, 1823, during a severe 
