-NOWY-OWL -4ir, 



SNOWYOWL 



The owls so Car described are species with which most of us are 

 more or less familiar. The two remaining species to be considered 

 her. ar< comparatively rare. Of these the snowy-owl is one of the 

 most interesting of all the owls, and this on account of its coloration 

 and its mode of life. Of great size, and nearly related to the eagle- 

 ONN!S, it has contrived to find a congenial home in the desolate regions 

 of the north, beyond the limit of forest-i;r<>\\ih, as well as in similar 

 i-li mates at high elevations in less northerly latitudes. Only when 

 pressed by the extreme severity of the weather, and the consequent 

 scarcity of food, does it seek more southerly lands. And during such 

 migrations it not nnfre(|iient IN visits our ishmds. hut only t luring the 

 N\ inter months : the Orkneys and Shetlands are almost annually visited 

 l\ these ItinK and especially after northerly _ir.iles. More rarely it 

 wanders, or is perhaps driven, yet farther south, and Norfolk boasts 

 no less than nine of these visitations. 



The habits of this bird, however, must be studied in its northeni 

 home, where it may be found breeding chiefly in the region of the 

 Arctic Circle the fjelds of Lapland, the tundras of Siberia, and the 

 nortln -i 1 1 most regions of North America. For some eight months in 

 tin- \ear these regions are under some six feet of snow. The three 

 months of hot summer weather are largely occupied in the cares of a 

 family. The nest, which is formed of moss, feathers, and lichen, placed 

 in a hole in the ground, after the fashion of the shorteared-owl, is 

 placed, as a rule, in a steep bank, in a crevice in a cliff, or an eminence 

 rising above the plain, whereby damp is avoided Incubation, as is 

 usual anion- ..\\U. rommences ; ,x soon as tin- first . is hid. and tin- 

 male is said to mount guard during the hours of brooding, and to him 

 falls the task of procuring food for the young, which is apportioned by 

 the female. The young birds, it is to be remarked, are clothed in a sooty 

 grey down, and not, as one would have expected, in white down. 



