GENUS 3. STRIX. OWL. 

 SPECIES 1. STRIX NYCTEA. 



SNOW OWL. 

 [Plate XXXII. Fig. 1, Male.] 



LATHAM i, 132, JVo. 17. BUFFON, i, 387. Great White Owl, 

 EDW. 61. Snowy Owl, Jirct. Zool 233, JVo. 121. PEALE'S 

 Museum, No. 458.* 



THE Snow Owl represented in the plate, is reduced to half its 

 natural size. To preserve the apparent magnitude, the other 

 accompanying figures are drawn by the same scale. 



This great northern hunter inhabits the coldest and most 

 dreary regions of the northern hemisphere, in both continents. 

 The forlorn mountains of Greenland, covered with eternal ice 

 and snows, where, for nearly half the year, the silence of death 

 and desolation might almost be expected to reign, furnish food 

 and shelter to this hardy adventurer; whence he is only driven 

 by the extreme severity of weather towards the seashore. He is 

 found in Lapland, Norway, and the country near Hudson's Bay, 

 during the whole year; is said to be common in Siberia, and 

 numerous in Kamtschatka. He is often seen in Canada, and the 

 northern districts of the United States; and sometimes extends 

 his visits to the borders of Florida. Nature, ever provident, has 

 so effectually secured this bird from the attacks of cold, that not 

 even a point is left exposed. The bill is almost completely hid 

 among a mass of feathers, that cover the face; the legs are clothed 

 with such an exuberance of long thick hair-like plumage, as to 

 appear nearly as large as those of a middle sized dog, nothing 

 being visible but the claws, which are large, black, much hooked, 



* We add the following synonymes: Slrix nj/ctea, LINN. Syst. ed. 10, i, ;>. 

 93. -GMEL. Syst. r, p. 291. LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 57. Slrix Candida, Id. Sup. 2, p. 

 14. VIEIL. Ois. de I 1 Jim, Sept. i, pi. IS. TEMM. Man. cf Orn. j, p. 82. 



