CLASS II. AVES: ORDEK 1. RAPTORES. 



69 



THE WHITE OWL. 



The White Owl, Snowy Owl, or Ermine Owl, S. harfanr/, or S. nyctea of Latham, is the Wa- 

 pohoo of the Cree Indians and the Oohpeerfuak of the Esquimaux. The head is small in proportion ; 

 bill black, entirely hidden by the hairy feathers at its base; plumage snow-white, but more or less 

 variegated with transverse brown spots or stripes ; the younger the bird is, the larger and more 

 numerous are these stripes; very old individuals are pure white, without any brown spots; iris 

 fine orange yellow ; feet very well covered, so as to look almost woolly to the claws ; tail rounded, 

 not much exceeding in length the extremity of the wings ; length twenty-four or twenty-five 

 inches ; female considerably larger than the male ; young at the time of departure from the 

 nest covered with brown down ; the first feathers briijht down. It is found in the Arctic regions 

 of the Old and New World, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Lapland, and the north of Europe gener- 

 ally. The author just quoted says : 



" This great northern hunter inhabits the coldest and most dreary regions of the northern hem- 

 isphere on 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 ex- 

 pected to reign, furnish food and shelter to this hardy adventurer, whence he is only driven by 

 the extreme severity of weather toward the sea-shore. 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 numer- 

 ous 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 effect- 

 ually 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, and 

 extremely sharp. The whole plumage below the surface is of the most exquisitely soft, warm, 

 and clastic kind, and so closely matted together as to make it a difiicult matter to penetrate to 

 the skin. 



