218 NOTES ON THE 
quite undisturbed, but with the distribution of subsequent set- 
tlements, an occasional bird fell before the farmer’s gun. The 
old, mature bird, always wary, grew cautious, and gave the 
vicinity of dwellings a wide berth. After a time Minnesota 
became a famous resort for deer and Ruffed Grouse shooting, 
late enough for sportsmen to catch a shot at a Snowy Owl. 
Taxidermists all over the land offered high prices for them to 
mount, which brought every boy with a shotgun in his posses- 
sion into the field for them in particular. The consequence 
has been to send the wary old, mature individuals of the spe- 
cies around some other way, or make them exceedingly 
arboreal in their habits in winter. For many years now, not 
less than nine in every ten of them seen or collected, have 
been the young of the year. Indeed, it is only occasionally met 
with in the sections alluded to, even in the first plumage now, 
but in the northern, swampier, and more heavily timbered 
sections, it is aS well represented as ever, so far as | can learn 
from others and from personal observation. : 
Sometimes earlier, but generally the first of these birds 
arrive from the north about the 15th of November. They 
remain until about the first of May, after which they are 
seldom seen. 
It is emphatically a Grouse Owl, as any one who examines 
the ingesta will readily see. It hunts its prey mostly in the 
twilight of evening and morning, but has equally good day 
vision, though manifestly preferring cloudy days when much 
exposed. The nearly complete white plumage is only attained 
in the third or fourth year. 
Mr. Lewis found them ‘‘rather common for the species” in 
Becker county, and at Leech lake the 19th to 23d of Octo- 
ber. Mr. Washburn met them ‘‘occasionally” in Otter Tail 
between October ninth and November tenth. Specimens of the 
young were obtained during March and April, and in Novem- 
ber of the present year (1887), within a few miles of Min- 
neapolis and St. Paul. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill nearly concealed by projecting plumes; eyes large; 
entire plumage white, frequently with a few spots or imperfect 
bands, only on the upper parts dark brown, and on the under 
parts with a few irregular and imperfect bars of the same; 
quills and tail with a few spots, or traces of bands of the same 
dark brown; the prevalence of the dark brown color varies 
much in different specimens; frequently both upper and under 
