THE OOLOGIST 



123 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE 

 SNOWY OWL IN SOUTH- 

 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA 



By J. Warren Jacobs 



I do not know why it is so, but to 

 me there always seemed something- 

 pathetic in the death of certain birds, 

 the circumstances surrounding the 

 death, and the sight of the lifeless 

 body, even though it had been turned 

 into my possession for mounting. 



While a sense of pride of ownership 

 of sucli birds, always surrounded my 

 Lhoughts, nevertheless 1 am thrilled to 

 of such birds always surrounded my 

 learn of them esca,'ping into the optn 

 where they add completeness ana har- 

 mcny to the beauty and grandeur of 

 nature. 



An occasional eagle wanders this 

 way, and if it be a Golden Eagle, 

 greater am I thrilled at its majestic 

 flight. 



While they were not killed by me, 

 nevertheless 1 have two of the four 

 Golden Eagle records for the state of 

 Pennsylvania during the past twenty- 

 live years, both of which were killed 

 in the southern part of Greene county 

 and brought to me by friends. I have 

 the only Sand Hill Crane taken in 

 Pennsylvania, and this too, from south- 

 ern Green county, a'nd near the same 

 section from whence the eagles came. 



But of all the large birds which 

 wander to this section, the one which 

 moves me to the utmost tension, and 

 the sight of whose lifeless form meets 

 a deep pathetic chord of my heart, 

 casting something like a sadness into 



my soul, even as I work over him, is 

 the Great Snowy Owl, who so suddenly 

 swcops down upon us from the far 

 No.th and majestically floats about 

 like a great white apparition in the 

 gathering dusk at eventide. 



On November 24, 1894, a fine speci- 

 men killed within six miles of this 

 town, was brought to me to mount; 

 and as I worked over him my thoughts 

 of the bird were as to why he wan- 

 dered, why he was killed, and my own 

 lamentations that I could not make 

 him live again, and send him forth to 

 f.ll his place in the glorious World of 

 Nature! Hence the following lines 

 which were penned at the time and 

 published in a local paper, together 

 With a short article on the bird's life 

 history: 



Oh, bird from Land of Ling'ring 



Snow," 

 Why did you wander to and fro; 

 Why came you here to "Little Greene," 

 Where death awaited unforseen? 



Not for your depredations, wild, — 

 We know your disposition, mild, — 

 But for your dress, so pure and white. 

 Is why you came to death's sad plight! 



Angels, bear that form away. 

 Silently, at dusk of day. 

 To Arctic's ice-bound Polar Sea, — 

 In Grinnell Land, there set it free! 



I was not privileged to keep this 

 bird, and while the angels didn't carry 

 the form back to Grinnell Land, the 

 bird's skin, long since went the way 

 many beautiful things do, in a manner 

 wliicli reverses the old maxim that "A 

 thing of beauty is a joy forever." 



Ever since that bird was taken away 

 from my rooms, I have wished for one 

 captured in our section; and while on 



