SNOWY OWL. 



Owl a nerve-racking, blood-curdling shriek in a higher 

 pitched voice, but I have been unfortunate or, perhaps, 

 fortunate enough not to have heard that! 



Snowy Owl This handsome, large, white Owl is easily 



KJVSJ; recognized, for none other is white, and 

 November xoth tnere is a distinct advantage to the observer 

 April aoth in its being diurnal in its habits, though like 

 other Owls it is more active in the dusk of the evening. 

 Mr. Eaton reports that in the State of New York, the duck 

 hunters are sometimes surprised to see it descend upon 

 their decoys while they are concealed in their blinds! It 

 not infrequently has been my experience to have observed 

 it in broad daylight flying above the highway or through 

 the cool woodland of the White Mountains in winter and 

 as early as October and as late as April; that is not sur- 

 prising for it is a cold country, and one may encounter snow 

 flurries in both those months through that region as far 

 south as Plymouth and West Ossipee. The male Owls are 

 smaller and whiter than the females, though both are more 

 or less flecked or barred with a dilute sepia brown on the 

 crown, back, wings, tail, and often the lower breast; the 

 face, throat, and upper breast are unmarked; feet hidden 

 with very thick, white feathering, eyes yellow, bill black 

 imbedded in feathers, no ear-tufts. Distinctly arctic in 

 its range, it wanders southward at very irregular intervals; 

 during the winters of 1876, '82, '83, '89, '90, 1901, '02, '14, 

 '17 it appeared in unusual numbers in the northeastern 

 portions of the United States and in Canada. It breeds as 

 far south as central Ungava and Keewatin, and its winter 

 flights occasionally extend to the Carolinas, Louisiana, and 

 Texas. The nest is built on the ground, or in the sheltered 

 nook of some rocky cliff; it is commonly lined with moss 

 and feathers. Egg white, about 2.20 inches long. 



I have no record of the Snowy Owl's voice, but if we may 

 believe what Pennant writes of it, there is nothing worse 

 possessed by any bird, the Loon not excepted "It adds 

 horror even to the regions of Greenland by its hideous cries 

 which resemble those of a man in deep distress." Why not 

 come nearer home and say it almost equals the hair-raising, 

 blood-curdling yells of an ordinary city cat's nocturne! 

 271 



