392 THE OWLS 



the plumage is reduced with age, especially in the male. But it appears to be a 

 variable character, some individuals being much barred throughout life, while in 

 others the bars almost completely disappear. The " ears " are always very short 

 and inconspicuous. The feet and toes are closely feathered ; the soles of the feet 

 are also feathered. The first nestling down (protoptyle) plumage is of a sooty brown 

 colour, the second (mesoptyle) is barred, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. A circumpolar species, breeding principally in the Arctic 

 regions of the Old and New Worlds. In Europe it is occasionally found nesting on 

 the fjelds of Northern Norway, Sweden, and Lapland, and in the Kola Peninsula, 

 but chiefly during Lemming years and at irregular intervals. It also breeds on the 

 tundras of North Russia, and is said to have nested as far south as the govern- 

 ments of St. Petersburg, Perm, and Orenburg, as well as in Livonia (Russow). It 

 has frequently been known to breed on Novaya Zemlya, and apparently on Waigatz, 

 Jan Mayen, Franz Josef Land, and probably Spitsbergen, but not on Iceland, though 

 it is found in Greenland and in the Arctic regions of Asia and North America. 

 The most northerly breeding-place on record is in Grinnell Land, lat. 82 33'. 

 Although its normal winter quarters lie in the high north, it has occurred as a rare 

 straggler to France, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Lower Austria, the Black and 

 Caspian Seas in Europe ; while it has occurred as far south as Texas in N. 

 America, and Persia and Peshawur in Asia. [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A winter visitor, in very small numbers, from its Arctic 

 summer quarters. To Shetland and Orkney "it is now known to be an almost 

 annual visitor in the cold season, especially after northerly gales ; while its occur- 

 rence in the Outer and Inner Hebrides, as well as on the mainland of Scotland, is 

 by no means unusual " (Saunders, III. Man. B. B., 2nd ed., 1899, p. 303). There 

 are also numerous records from various parts of England and Wales, notably from 

 the northern, south-western, and East Anglian districts, and the species has also 

 been frequently recorded from Ireland (cf. Saunders, loc. cit. ; Ussher and Warren, 

 B. of Ireland, 1900, pp. 117-18 ; and Witherby and Ticehurst, British Birds, i. p. 315, 

 and ii. p. 412, etc.). Evidence of a gregarious tendency on migration may be found 

 in the statement that " a flock, perched on the spars of a vessel, has voyaged from 

 Labrador half way to Ireland " (Saunders, op. cit., p. 304). [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. Does not breed in the British Isles. [F. c. E. J.] 



5. Food. In the high north the food of this species consists of such species 

 as the lemming and other rodents, the Arctic hare, ptarmigan, willow-grouse, 

 ducks, little auks, and other species of sea-birds. It has also been known to take 



