412 CORACIIFORMES chap. 



Nyctea scandiaca, the white Snowy Owl, occasionally exhibit- 

 ing spots or broken bars of black, has ill-dev^eloped facial discs and 

 hardly visible tufts, but very thickly feathered feet. It inhabits 

 the circumpolar fjelds, tundras, and barren grounds, straying as 

 far as Britain, France, Lower Austria, the Indus Valley and tlie 

 Bermudas in winter; but when rodents abound on the fells of Norway 

 and Sweden a greater number remain there to breed. The flight 

 is strong and easy ; the habits are diurnal ; the food consists of 

 lemmings, rats, mice, squirrels, hares, birds large or small, fishes, and 

 doubtless insects. It is called Harfiing (hare-catcher) in Scandinavia. 

 This Owl either catches the fishes in one claw as it skims over the 

 water, or crouches on some stone or piece of ice till the moment comes 

 to strike ; at times, moreover, it will follow sportsmen in the field. 

 The cry, seldom heard, is wild and wailing. The large, oval eggs, 

 numbering from three to five, or even ten when food is plentiful, 

 are deposited in holes scraped in the soil on ledges of rocks or 

 tlier eminences, sometimes lined with moss and feathers ; they 

 appear occasionally to be laid in pairs at intervals. The parents, 

 though usually wary, will attack a man at the nest. 



The cosmopolitan genus Scoj^s, found almost everywhere except 

 in the extreme north, Australia, Oceania, and the southern portion 

 of South America, contains some fifty so-called species which it 

 would be useless to discuss in the present state of our informa- 

 tion, though certain of them are mentioned below. liufous, 

 brown, and grey phases undoubtedly occur, but the various 

 plumages are still very imperfectly understood. Perhaps two- 

 thirds of the forms occur in the Old World, yet only one (*S'. giv) 

 inhabits the Palaearctic Eegion west of Japan, though there we 

 find S. semitorques. The general coloration is a mixture of grey, 

 brown, chocolate or rufous, with a less amount of black, yellowish, 

 -and white ; some species are finely vermiculated, others hardly 

 at all, while several are almost barred below and many are dis- 

 tinctly banded on the tail. The facial discs are incomplete, but 

 the head-tufts are well developed ; the metatarsi and toes are 

 feathered, or bristly, or the latter are occasionally bare. Sco}n 

 giu, the Petit Due of France, which visits Britain and Holland, 

 extends over Central and Southern Europe, Asia Minor, Pales- 

 tine, Persia, and Tvirkestan, occurring in North Africa, and 

 migrating as far southwards as Abyssinia and Senegal. Sub- 

 species occupy the Ethiopian Eegion, and Asia to Japan and 



*! 



