132 BIRDS OF THE WEST 



SNOWY OWL. 



Many men stuff birds but none of them becomes a taxidermist 

 until he has put up a snowy owl. Most of these birds that are 

 in our latitude are either in museums or private collections or 

 are soon to go there. 



They make swell targets. They have two large owl's eyes 

 that are better than bull's eyes and outer rings around them too. 

 They are not fit for food unless it be for other owls, but for all 

 that they are just as good for targets. Why, I can think of noth- 

 ing that interferes with their target-value. I wish that some- 

 body could. How would it be to enact a law that whoever shoots 

 one shall eat it? 



They probably will not become extinct for some time for no 

 Arctic, explorer has been far enough north as yet to get beyond 

 their range. What specters they must be in the Arctic nights to 

 the smaller inhabitants of the icy plains ! 



As these owls depend for their food wholly upon what they 

 kill, they have become expert hunters. They can catch a duck 

 on the wing or a hare on the foot and many a fish loses his life 

 by venturing too near the little island of sea-weeds upon which a 

 snowy owl is sitting and singing "I'm waiting and watching for 

 thee." 



I have a friend who started on a short trip with a cage con- 

 taining two owls, one a snowy owl and the other as near as I 

 could judge from his description a long eared owl. When he 

 arrived at his destination, he called a friend to see his owls. The 

 snowy owl was apparently all that the cage contained. Doubtless 

 if they could have seen what the snowy owl contained they would 

 have ceased to wonder. 



Just west of the Missouri river in the least settled regions 

 he is a common visitor wearing his frostiest suit and feeding upon 

 the multitudes of sparrow-like birds that throng the open plains, 

 but as that region becomes more thickly settled, he will be driven 

 to the north or go to join the dodo and the auk and be gathered 

 to his feathered fathers and his patron saint, Minerva. Alas! 

 Wisdom is so rare! 



