SNOW OWL. 117 



face, belly and vent, are white; femoral feathers white, long 

 and shaggy, marked with a few heart-shaped spots of brown; 

 legs also covered to the claws with long white hairy down; rest 

 of the plumage white, every feather spotted or barred with dark 

 brown, largest on the wing quills, where they are about two 

 inches apart; fore part of the crown thickly marked with round- 

 ish black spots; tail crossed with bands of broad brownish spots; 

 shafts of all the plumage white; bill and claws, as in the male, 

 black; third and fourth wing quill the longest, span of the foot 

 four inches. 



From the various individuals of these birds which I have ex- 

 amined, I have reason to believe that the male alone approaches 

 nearly to white in his plumage, the female rarely or never. The 

 bird from which the figure in the plate was drawn, was killed 

 at Egg-Harbour, New Jersey, in the month of December. The 

 conformation of the eye of this bird forms a curious and inte- 

 resting subject to the young anatomist. The globe of the eye is 

 immoveably fixed in its socket, by a strong, elastic, hard, car- 

 tilaginous case, in form of a truncated cone; this case being 

 closely covered with a skin, appears at first to be of one con- 

 tinued piece; but on removing the exterior membrane it is found 

 to be formed of fifteen pieces, placed like the staves of a cask, 

 overlapping a little at the base or narrow end, and seem as if 

 capable of being enlarged or contracted, perhaps by the muscu- 

 lar membrane with which they are encased. In five other diffe- 

 rent species of Owls, which I have since examined, I found 

 nearly the same conformation of this organ, and exactly the 

 same number of staves. The eye being thus fixed, these birds, 

 as they view different objects, are always obliged to turn the 

 head; and nature has so excellently adapted their neck to this 

 purpose, that they can, with ease, turn it round, without mov- 

 ing the body, in almost a complete circle. 



