416 THE OWLS 



While in the case of some birds, as with seed-eaters, the young are fed 

 on a special diet, with the Owls and other predaceous birds the young 

 fare as their parents. In the case of the snowy-owl the food is 

 commonly furnished by lemmings, but willow-grouse, ptarmigan, and the 

 Arctic hare are also killed, from which fact the snowy-owl, in Sweden, 

 is known as the "Harfang" or hare-catcher. In parts of its range, at 

 any rate, the bulk of its food is furnished by mice and field-voles, 

 varied by musk-rats and squirrels. In Behring Island, for example, 

 Dr. Leonhard Stejineger l obtained eleven specimens, all of which were 

 crammed with " arvicoline mice," and it is interesting to note that, 

 according to this author, prior to 1870 there were no mice in the 

 island, and but few snowy-owls visited it. At about this date the 

 house-mouse (Mm- musculiis) was introduced from ships, and the red- 

 backed-mouse (Evotoinys rutilus) also, in some mysterious way, gained 

 an entrance. Twelve years later this island swarmed with mice, and 

 there was an abundance of resident owls. But they did not feed 

 exclusively on mice, for he also saw them chase " sea-ducks (especially 

 Histrionicus histrionicus) out at the reef very much in the same manner 

 as does the falcon." According to Collet, the duty of providing 

 the food devolves upon the male, the female dividing it among 

 the young as it is brought to her. Hence the males, during this 

 period of the year, are always in poor condition, while the females 

 are generally plump ! 2 



Reference has already been made to the liking which this and 

 other owls display for fish, but the snowy-owl seems to be almost as 

 expert a fisherman as the true fish owls. Thus they will take their 

 prey by a sudden down-thrust of the feet as they fly low over the 

 water, or they will alight on a low boulder over the water and grip 

 their victims from this station. Audubon 3 has left on record a some- 

 what remarkable account of this stationary method of fishing. " One 

 morning," he says, " as I lay hidden in a pile of floated logs at the falls 



1 Bull. U.S. Nat. Mu8. t 1885, 223. 



1 Seebohm's History of Birds, vol. i. p. 182. 



3 Ornithological Biography, vol. ii. p. 136. 



