OWLS. 



335 



however, has recorded the capture of both forms at Houlton, Maine, while according 

 to Dresser the Asiatic form does not occur in Great Britain at all, but whenever a 

 hawk-owl has (rarely) been taken there, it has proved to be in the plumage of the 

 American bird. 



The snowy-owl, Nyctea scandiaca, is a much better known bird than the preceding, 

 owing, doubtless, in part to its large size and snowy plumage, but also to the fact that 



FIG. 153. Nyctea scanrtiaca, snowy-owl, and Syrnium lapponicum, great gray-owl. 



it has a much wider range, being not uncommon in all the northern United States in 

 winter, and having occurred even in Kansas and Texas. Occasionally it becomes 

 abundant in the United States in winter, several invasions similar to the ' wave ' of 

 hawk-owls mentioned above being on record. Apparently the latest of these took 

 place during the winters of 1861-62 and 1876-77. Of this last inroad, Mr. Ruthven 

 Deane has given an account from which we extract the following : 



"About the first of November, 1876, large numbers suddenly appeared along our 

 coast. This being the season when sportsmen and the market gunners were in pursuit 



