274 ITS HABITS. 



harsh note, krd-u, krd-u. Its flight is usually short, and 

 it rests very often on rocky eminences or boulders. The 

 female, at this season, frequently emits a shrill note, 

 rick, rick, rick, casts herself to the ground as though 

 her wing was broken, and occasionally lies there as if 

 dead with outstretched wings. At such times she has 

 probably her young in the vicinity, and by thus endan- 

 gering her own safety she endeavours to put the enemy 

 on the wrong scent. 



I have myself seen this bird at noonday, and when the 

 sun was shining bright, soaring aloft in the air, in the 

 manner of a falcon ; but whether it was then actually in 

 search of prey, or that it was hovering over its nest 

 or young, I cannot take upon myself to say. This 

 was on the Hardanger fjall, in Norway, where, from 

 the number of these birds that I fell in with on one 

 particular day, I should imagine they must be pretty 

 numerous. Though on this occasion I sent several balls 

 after them from a pea-rifle, as well when they were on 

 the wing, as when perched on boulders, and though 

 more than once the balls scraped off some feathers, it 

 was unfortunately out of my power to obtain even a single 

 specimen. 



Though the snowy owl occasionally helps itself to a hare, 

 it is believed for the most part, like the rough-legged 

 buzzard, to subsist on rats and lemmings, which are so 

 abundant in the fjalls. 



This bird makes its nest in the cleft of a rock, or it 

 may be on the rock itself. The female is said to lay from 

 two to three eggs, of a white colour ; and when the young 



