LAP OWL. 
135 
EAPACES NoCTURNJE. 
STRIGID^. 
Genus Syrnium. ( Samgny.) 
LAP OWL. 
Syrnium cinereum. 
Syrnium cinereum, 
Strix Lapponica, 
" barbatum, 
" fuliginosa, 
Great Grey Owl, 
Gmelin. Baird. Richardson and 
Swainson in Faun. Bor. Amer., pi. 31. 
Retzius. Temminck. 
Schlegel. Bree; ist. ed. 
Pallas. 
Shaw. 
Baird. 
Specific Characters. — Plumage grey, spotted and striped with brown and 
russet above; white, with dashes of brown below. Length of specimen in 
Norwich Museum twenty-four inches; from carpus to tip of wing seventeen 
inches. 
Mr. Gurney, in the "Ibis" of 1867, p. 465, says it is quite certain 
that the North European and North American Owls, which pass under 
the name of S. Lapponicum and S. cinereum are perfectly identical. 
Prof. Newton, "Ootheca "Wolleyana," admits their very close alliance, 
but G. E. Gray, "Hand-List," vol. i., p. 48, gives them as distinct. 
I have however adopted Mr. Gurney's view, and of course Gmelin's 
name of cinereum must replace that of Lapponicum, I have however 
retained our English name Lap Owl. 
The range of the Lap Owl is confined to Lapland, Greenland, and 
the northern parts of North America. 
An interesting account of this bird is given in Eichardson and 
Swainson's "Fauna Boreali Americana," published in 1841, where it 
