72 C. H. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. 



virtue there was in his incisors. Being blest with a good set he with 

 much difficulty succeeded in biting off all the claws of the Owl, and 

 relieving himself from his perilous position, probably a w r iser man for 

 his first lesson in Ornithology."* 



Surely Thomas Morton, Esq., could not have been familiar with 

 the love calls of this species, or he would never have written: "There 

 are Owles of divers kindes : but I did never heare any of them whop 

 as ours doe."f 



151. Nyctea Scandiaca (Linne) Newton. Snowy Owl. 



This magnificent bird seems to be a pretty regular winter visitant 

 along our coast. Linsley had secured five specimens from Stratford, 

 Conn., and Dr. Whelpley had observed it at New Haven, prior to 

 the year 1843.J Two specimens came to my notice during the win- 

 ter of 1875-6 (the first on Nov. 10), and no less than a dozen speci- 

 mens were killed in the immediate vicinity of New Haven in October 

 (Oct. 17, Osborne), and November last (1876). They unquestionably 

 belonged to the immense flock of these Owls that passed through 

 eastern Massachusetts about the same time. Over two hundred 

 specimens were shot about Boston in October and November. For a 

 detailed account of this wonderful and really perplexing migration, 

 consult an article by Ruthven Deane, Esq., in the Bulletin of the 

 Nuttall Ornithological Club, No. 1, vol. ii, p. 9, for January, 1877. 

 Dr. Wm. Wood, of East Windsor Hill, Conn., writes that they were 

 unusually abundant here during the winter of 1858-9, when fifteen 

 or twenty were shot in Hartford County. He further observes that 

 "it hunts either by day, or in the twilight, occasionally pursuing 

 game on the wing and securing it after the manner of the true falcons, 

 but generally devouring it on the spot like the Marsh Hawk. When 

 annoyed and teased by Crows it will now and then seek shelter in a 

 hollow tree. Some years since I was pursuing one of these birds, in 

 our meadows, that was followed and tormented by a great number of 

 Crows. It finally alighted on an apple tree about a hundred rods 

 distant, and in a few moments the whole tree was black with his 

 tormenters, and still they came from all directions, attracted by the 

 noise and confusion of those diving at the Owl. Soon they began to 



* Hartford Times, chap, xx, August 17, 1861. 



f New English Canaan, p. 49. (Reprinted in Force's Historical Tracts, Tract 5, 

 vol. ii.) 



\ Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, No. 2, vol. xliv, p. 253, 1843. 



