THE SNOWY OWL. 2?3 



" This owl, whose head is more like a cat ? s than a bird's," 

 says Pontoppidan, " is greatly hated here, from a superstitious 

 notion people have, that it forebodes death in the family 

 where it happens to take up its abode. The female lays 

 two eggs, and if they are changed for hens' eggs she will 

 hatch them, but eat the young, when she finds they are 

 not of her own kind. If the owl and the cat happen to 

 quarrel and fight, they do not leave off till one or the other 

 is killed ; so that their enmity is not the less for their 

 being in some degree of kin. Thus we see, according 

 to the Norwegian proverb," he goes on to say, " ' that friends 

 are the greatest foes/ ' 



The Snowy Owl (Fjall-Uggla, or Fjall-Owl, Sw. ; 

 Noctua nyctea, Jen.) This bird is common in the higher 

 regions of the more northern parts of Scandinavia. In the 

 summer time it confines itself altogether to the mountains 

 and fjalls ; but in the winter probably driven from thence 

 by storms and bad weather it is not infrequently met 

 with in the more southern parts of Sweden ; and even on 

 the plains of Scania a good many have at different times 

 been shot. It would not appear, however, to migrate much 

 farther to the southward than that province ; for it is rarely 

 seen in Denmark and the north of Germany, and seldom 

 or never in the south of Europe. 



The snowy owl is a very shy bird, and in the open country 

 will not readily allow any one to approach it. In the summer 

 time, at least, one generally meets with these birds in 

 pairs. As with some other owls, it hunts by day. Its 

 flight is high, and with the like powerful sweep of the 

 wing as the larger hawks. When in the air it utters a 



VOL. II. T 



