SNOWY OWL. 
Owl a nerve-racking, blood-curdling shriek in a higher 
pitched voice, but I have been unfortunate or, perhaps, 
fortunate enough not to have heard that! 
Snéwy Owl This handsome, large, white Owl is easily 
Nyctea nyctea  reeognized, for none other is white, and 
L. 24 inches ; 2 Fe 
November roth there is a distinct advantage to the observer 
April 20th’ in its being diurnal in its habits, though like 
other Owls it is more active in the dusk of the evening. 
Mr. Eaton reports that in the State of New York, the duck 
hunters are sometimes surprised to see it descend upon 
their decoys while they are concealed in their blinds! It 
not infrequently has been my experience to have observed 
it in broad daylight flying above the highway or through 
the cool woodland of the White Mountains in winter and 
as early as October and as late as April; that is not sur- 
prising for it isa cold country, and one may encounter snow 
flurries in both those months through that region as far 
south as Plymouth and West Ossipee. The male Owls are 
smaller and whiter than the females, though both are more 
or less flecked or barred with a dilute sepia brown on the 
crown, back, wings, tail, and often the lower breast; the 
face, throat, and upper breast are unmarked; feet hidden 
. with very thick, white feathering, eyes yellow, bill black 
imbedded in feathers, no ear-tufts. Distinctly arctic in 
its range, it wanders southward at very irregular intervals; 
during the winters of 1876, ’82, ’83, ’89, ’90, 1901, ’02, 714, 
’17 it appeared in unusual numbers in the northeastern 
portions of the United States and in Canada. It breeds as 
far south as central Ungava and Keewatin, and its winter 
flights occasionally extend to the Carolinas, Louisiana, and 
Texas. The nest is built on the ground, or in the sheltered 
nook of some rocky cliff; it is commonly lined with moss 
and feathers. Egg white, about 2.20 inches long. 
I have no record of the Snowy Owl’s voice, but if we may 
believe what Pennant writes of it, there is nothing worse 
possessed by any bird, the Loon not excepted—‘“‘It adds 
horror even to the regions of Greenland by its hideous cries 
which resemble those of a man in deep distress.”” Why not 
come nearer home and say it almost equals the hair-raising, 
blood-curdling yells of an ordinary city cat’s nocturne! 
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