526 The Roller-like Birds 



a commanding position on some projecting point of rock or a knoll in the tundra, 

 where it watches what is going on around it, now and then dropping upon some 

 unsuspecting mouse or enjoying a more or less extended flight over the country. 

 It is shy and difficult of approach at all times, but especially when occupying a 

 commanding position in the open; yet it is of gentle disposition naturally and 

 when caught soon becomes tame in confinement. Its flight, though noiseless, 

 is strong and often protracted, and its cry, according to Dresser, is a loud krau- 

 krau and also rick, rick, rick. 



The food of the Snowy Owl consists principally of the lemming, and it is 

 said to be always abundant wherever this little Arctic mammal is found in 

 numbers. Thus of its presence at Point Barrow, Alaska, Murdoch says: ''Dur- 

 ing the season of 1882 we saw no lemmings, though signs of their presence in the 

 shape of droppings, and their skulls and skeletons in the Owls' castings, were 

 numerous all over the tundra. During that season we saw but few Owls. On 

 the other hand, in 1883, lemmings were exceedingly plenty all around the station, 

 and Owls were proportionately abundant; scarcely a day passed without one 

 or more being seen sitting on the tundra, generally on the top of a bank or small 

 knoll, on the lookout for lemmings." Aside from the lemmings it also feeds on 

 Ptarmigan, Ducks, and other water fowl, and even the Arctic hare, an animal 

 fully twice as heavy as itself, is successfully attacked and killed by it. " This 

 bird never seizes its prey," says Turner, "except while the latter is in motion, 

 except probably in the case of fish. The hares are chased and seized near the 

 lumbar region and held by the bird, which spreads its wings and partly lifts the 

 animal from the ground, thus depriving it of the power to use its strong hinder 

 parts. The natives assert that when a Ptarmigan is sighted, the Owl endeavors 

 to start the bird into a run and it is then seized." The prey is always eaten on 

 the spot, unless, of course, it is designed for the young. 



The nest of this Owl is a very simple affair, usually placed on^he ground on 

 the highest and driest point in the surrounding tundra, but occasionally on a 

 projecting ledge of rock. When on the ground it is a simple hollow scratched 

 out by the birds and lined with a few grasses and feathers; when on a ledge the 

 eggs frequently lie on the bare rock with just sufficient material to keep them 

 from rolling off. The eggs, which are white with a faintly perceptible creamy 

 tint, number from three to ten, perhaps the usual number being from four to six. 

 Incubation begins as soon as the first one is laid, and young of various sizes or 

 eggs and newly hatched young are frequently found in the same nest. A 

 single brood is reared in the season, and, according to Turner, the old birds are 

 very bold in defense of the nest. 



Screech Owls. Allied to those last considered is a very large and widely 

 distributed genus of Owls known as Screech or Scops Owls (Megascops}. They 

 are all birds of small size, the majority of them being under ten inches in length, 

 with large heads and prominent ear-tufts, and relatively long wings which reach 

 nearly or quite to the tip of the tail. The tarsi are sometimes entirely naked, 

 and the toes are frequently naked or incompletely feathered. The plumage is 

 exceedingly variegated with vermiculations, cross-bars, and mottlings, and most 



