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THE SNOWY OWL. 



Strjx nyctea. 



PLATE CXXI. Male and Female. 



This beautiful bird is merely a winter visitor of the United States, 

 where it is seldom seen before the month of November, and whence it 

 retires as early as the beginning of February. It wanders at times along 

 the sea coast, as far as Georgia. I have occasionally seen it in the lower 

 parts of Kentucky, and in the State of Ohio. It is more frequently met 

 with in Pennsylvania and the Jerseys ; but in Massachusetts and Maine 

 it is far more abundant than in any other parts of the Union. 



The Snowy Owl hunts during the day, as well as in the dusk. Its 

 flight is firm and protracted, although smooth and noiseless. It passes 

 swiftly over its hunting ground, seizes its prey by instantaneously fal- 

 ling on it, and generally devours it on the spot. When the objects of 

 its pursuit are on wing, such as ducks, grouse, or pigeons, it gains up- 

 on them by urging its speed, and strikes them somewhat in the manner 

 of the Peregrine Falcon. It is fond of the neighbourhood of rivers 

 and small streams, having in their course cataracts or shallow rapids, 

 on the borders of which it seizes on fishes, in the manner of our wild 

 cat. It also watches the traps set for musk-rats, and devours the ani- 

 mals caught in them. Its usual food, while it remains with us, consists 

 of hares, squirrels, rats, and fishes, portions of all of which I have found 

 in its stomach. In several fine specimens which I examined immediately 

 after being killed, I found the stomach to be extremely thin, soft, and 

 capable of great extension. In one of them I found the whole of a large 

 house-rat, in pieces of considerable size, the head and the tail almost 

 entire. This bird was very fat, and its intestines, which were thin, and 

 so small as not to exceed a fourth of an inch in diameter, measured 4^ feet 

 in length. 



When skinned, the body of the Snowy Owl appears at first sight com- 

 pact and very muscular, for the breast is large, as are the thighs and legs, 

 these parts being covered with much flesh of a fine and delicate appearance, 

 very much resembling that'of a chicken, and not indelicate eating, but the 

 thorax is very narrow for so large a bird. The keel of the breast-bone is 



