192 STRIGID^E. 



Hume (Ibis, 1871, p. 410) has lately received an example from 

 Murdan in the Indus valley ; thus proving its southern range 

 in the Old World to be not much less extensive than it is 

 known to be in America, where Mr. Dresser records it, on 

 the late Dr. Heermtmn's authority, as having occurred at 

 San Antonio in Texas (Ibis, 1865, p. 330). On the western 

 coast of North America, however, its distribution is more 

 limited, and though it occurs in Vancouver's Island and 

 British Columbia, up to the present time Prof. Baird 

 says it has not been recognized in California. In its 

 migratory flights the Snowy Owl does not hesitate to betake 

 itself to the broad ocean : it has more than once been ob- 

 served in the Bermudas, and a very interesting account has 

 been given by Thompson of a flock which accompanied a 

 ship halfway across the Atlantic from the coast of Labrador 

 to the North of Ireland. This happened in November, 

 1838, and it is worthy of remark that not many days after 

 this event, the example, already mentioned as having 

 occurred in Devonshire, was picked up dead at St. John's 

 Lake, near Devonport. Its skin is now in the collection of 

 Mr. W. S. Hore of that place. 



The Snowy Owl bears confinement well, and in the 

 aviary of Mr. Edward Fountaine, whose unrivalled success 

 in treating tame Owls has before been mentioned, the hen 

 bird of a pair laid a single egg in the summer of 1870, 

 and four eggs in that of 1871 ; but, though she sat on the 

 latter, no young were hatched. 



It was formerly supposed (as was also imagined to be the 

 case with the Greenland Falcon) that the first feathers of 

 the young Snowy Owl were dark in colour, and that the 

 birds became whiter as they grew older. A specimen of a 

 nestling in the British Museum negatives this supposition. 

 The Owlet, it is true, is originally covered with down of a 

 sooty-black colour, each tuft having a brownish-buff tip ; 

 but the first feathers assumed are indistinguishable from 

 those which the adult wears, being of brilliant white with 

 more or fewer black or very dark brown spots or bars. The 

 birds, however, vary very much, and in some the plumage 



