SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 259 



British islands, this noble Owl is more frequently to be met with in 

 Scotland and the adjacent counties than was formerly suspected. Its 

 true habitat, however, is within the arctic circle of the old and new 

 world. From these bleak realms it migrates southward ; and it would 

 appear to visit more southern latitudes in America than in Europe. 

 Daring, impetuous, and fierce, this " playmate of the storm" com- 

 mits havoc among the tenants of the snowy mountains ; Alpine 

 Hares, Grouse, and even Foxes fall victims to its rapacity. " The 

 indefatigable Wilson informs us that it is a dextrous fisher, pouncing 

 upon its finny prey and securing it by an instantaneous stroke of its 

 foot : and Dr. Richardson states, in the second volume of the Fauna 

 Boreali-Americana, that he has seen it pursue the American Hare, 

 making repeated strokes at the animal with its foot. It hunts in the 

 day, and, indeed, unless it could do so, it would be unfit to pass the 

 summer within the arctic circle." The habits and manners of this 

 species are, in fact, more those of the Falcons or Eagles, than of 

 the Strigidaz generally ; and the changes in its plumage are precisely 

 similar to those of the Gyrfalcon. During the first three or four 

 years the plumage is barred with brown, which markings become gra- 

 dually indistinct as the bird advances in years, till in the old males 

 the plumage is pure white. In the fur-countries, the Indians, and 

 even white residents, regard this Owl as good eating, especially in the 

 winter, when it becomes very fat. The flesh is delicately white. 



Red Grouse, Lagopus Scoticus, Lath. — Tetras rouge, Fr. As 

 we gaze on these admirable figures of the Red Grouse, the remem- 

 brance of the moorlands comes upon us — the moorlands bleak and 

 bold, with their deep glens and swelling hills all covered with Heath 

 and the Bilberry plant, where the Grouse makes her bed and covers 

 her crouching brood. Too well known is this celebrated bird to 

 require any observations : we cannot, however, forbear remarking 

 that it is peculiar to the British Islands ; it has never been found on 

 the continent — it is exclusively our own ; and may it never be extir- 

 pated from our moorlands by the wholesale destroyers of game, 

 whose boast is not in their skill, but in the number of birds they kill 

 in a given time, where the packs are thick and the birds tame and 

 unsuspicious. 



The Black Kite, Milvus ater — Milan noir, ou Parasite, Fr. — 

 Schwartzer Milan, G. Mr. Lear's figure of this Kite is very good j 

 the attitude is easy and natural, but the head does not quite please 

 us — it seems as if pushed down, as if the size of the stone had pre- 

 vented the artist from completing his outline as originally designed. 



